


The Shadow Ends: Part I

by MysticalOyster



Series: The Shadow Ends [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Bloodline - Claudia Gray
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anal Sex, Angst, Blow Jobs, Brendol Hux - Freeform, Developing Relationship, Dom/sub Undertones, Dominant Armitage Hux, Dubious Consent, Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Smut, First Order Politics (Star Wars), Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Healing, Inappropriate Use of the Force, Jedi Luke Skywalker, Jedi Rey (Star Wars), Kylo Ren Needs a Hug, Kylux - Freeform, M/M, Masturbation, Oral Sex, Original Character(s), POV Alternating, Porn, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Post-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rough Sex, Slow Burn, Smut, Stormpilot, Submissive Kylo Ren, Top Armitage Hux, Top Kylo Ren
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-15
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-01-31 01:34:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 41
Words: 46,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21438007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MysticalOyster/pseuds/MysticalOyster
Summary: An alternate saga following the events of The Force Awakens.Poe, Finn, and the rest of the Resistance rally to face the First Order. Leia takes on the New Republic as the deeply fractured Senate tries to snuff out the Resistance. Rey struggles to understand what it means to become a Jedi, and what it will cost. After the fall of Starkiller Base, General Hux and Kylo Ren are more at odds than ever, but a mandate from Supreme Leader Snoke forces them to cooperate. Soon, they find their paths more intertwined than they ever thought possible.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren, Leia Organa & Ben Solo, Poe Dameron/Finn, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey & Luke Skywalker, Snoke & Ben Solo
Series: The Shadow Ends [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1545595
Comments: 29
Kudos: 153





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the culmination of four years of writing. -Z & L

_ “Perpetua_ bridge to fighters,” said Leia, her voice broadcasting to all X-wing pilots. “That destroyer is the _Annihilator_, which is just as dangerous as the First Order’s flagship even without their TIE squadrons. So don’t get cocky, Commander Dameron. That goes for you too, Finn.”  
“What’d I do?” came Finn’s indignant response. “I’m the one who said this was a bad idea in the first place.”  
“This isn’t the best mission for a rookie pilot,” Poe admitted.  
“I’m just saying,” Finn continued, “don’t blame me when we all get killed.”  
Leia sighed. From her position on the main bridge of the _ Perpetua _ corvette-cruiser, the largest and only capital ship of the Resistance fleet, she watched the nimble X-wings speed ahead of the bulky vessel. They were approaching a massive steel structure that stretched diagonally across the _ Perpetua’s _ bridge window, its many circular levels rotating at different speeds around the central axis. This was what the First Order was after: Jultan Forge.  
The _ Annihilator _ was positioned just beyond Jultan, facing the oncoming X-wings_. _ Once Poe, Finn, and the other pilots had diverted the _ Annihilator’s _ guns, the _ Perpetua _ would open fire with its hull-piercing cannons. The _ Perpetua _ didn’t have enough firepower to disable the star destroyer, but it might convince the Order to abandon the fight—temporarily.  
Leia was only willing to engage the _ Annihilator _ because she knew that the First Order’s fleet was just as limited as her own. Each star destroyer usually carried a flotilla of TIE fighters that were launched at the first hint of confrontation. Agile and coordinated, TIEs could easily overwhelm less than a dozen X-wings. But since the loss of Starkiller Base, the Order had struggled to replenish its stock of ships and pilots. That left the _ Annihilator _unusually vulnerable.  
Lieutenant Kaydel Connix approached Leia. “They’ve detected us,” she said crisply.  
“Show time,” Leia declared. She reopened the comms and said, “Fly in low and fast, get their guns pointed away from the _ Perpetua_. And please,” she added, “do not get blown up.”  
“No promises,” chuckled Poe. “Black Leader engaging—follow my lead!”  
BB-8 chirped wildly, alerting Poe that the _ Annihilator’s _ cannons had locked onto him. Seconds later, Poe saw two flashes of green headed straight towards him.  
“Here we go,” he cheered, rolling his ship. The fiery blasts of plasma seared past the tips of his wings.  
BB-8 chastised him. “Aw, don’t be like that, BB-8. I saw that coming.” He glanced through the side window, watching as several more turrets rose from the surface of the star destroyer, each bearing four sets of short range cannons. “Visual on starboard cannons—light ’em up, Snap!”  
“Got it,” Snap replied.  
Poe dashed forward, drawing the turrets’ fire. He flew out of their limited range and then came back in a wide loop just in time to see Snap and the rest of Blue Squadron unleash a barrage of fire upon the wide wing of the _ Annihilator_. A horizontal line of fire burst along the destroyer as the turrets crumpled. A cheer rose through Poe’s headset.  
“Nice work,” he commended. “Red Squadron, line up with me and let’s swing around on the other side.”  
“Watch your tails,” warned Leia, her voice patching through to all pilots. “The ventral cannons will be live soon. Take them out.”  
“Got it,” Poe said. He pushed his ship into a dive, dipping under the _ Annihilator’s _ wing and then flying clear of the massive propulsion saucers at the rear of the destroyer. He looped back and then twisted to fly belly to belly with the _ Annihilator_.  
A rapidly rendering schematic on his screen showed Poe exactly what he was looking for: two vents that housed a heavy cannon launcher. A ventral missile could easily track and outpace an X-wing. They could even match the speed of an elite TIE Fighter, a lesson that Poe had learned the hard way.  
Poe closed in on the turrets just as they cleared the rim of the vents. They jolted to life and their deadly muzzles rotated in Poe’s direction. In moments, they would be ready to fire.  
Poe depressed the trigger on his joystick. Green lasers flashed in his peripheral vision and into the narrow column connecting the cannons to the hull of the _ Annihilator. _With a few shots, the steel collapsed in a fiery explosion. Poe flew through the fireball and sped along the rest of the destroyer, righting himself as soon as he was clear.  
As he emerged from beneath the _ Annihilator_, Poe saw Finn’s X-wing glide into position beside him. They turned in a wide loop around the _ Annihilator _ until they reached the front of it and turned to face it head on. “Ready to take your shot?” he asked.  
“Nope,” Finn replied cheerfully.  
“You got this,” affirmed Poe. “I’ll cover you.”  
He steered into position behind Finn as they approached the nose of the _ Annihilator_. In sync, they sped forward into a steep dive over the destroyer, aiming for the raised command bridge where the communications equipment was housed. The bridge itself was too heavily fortified to be taken out by an X-wing, but the radar was vulnerable. Without its communications, the _ Annihilator _ would not be able to call for backup, and Jultan could be saved.  
Two forward turrets were trained on Finn, armed and preparing to fire. Poe cut across and fired a quick burst on the base of the turret’s narrow support, disabling them. “Now, Finn,” Poe said.  
“I’m on it.” Finn dove towards the grouping of radar equipment located over the _ Annihilator’s _ command bridge.  
A deep rumble shook through the panels of Poe’s ship. Poe froze and said, “Uh, BB-8, what’s happening?”  
BB-8 sounded a shrill warning, and a proximity alert blared through the cockpit. A moment later, Poe found himself facing the colossal bow of a second destroyer—the _ Finalizer_.  
“Break off, Finn, break off!” Poe shouted, veering his X-wing away before he could be trapped between the destroyers.  
“Shit,” Finn exclaimed, doubling back to follow Poe. A wall of lasers burst from the _ Finalizer _as it closed the distance to Jultan.  
Poe spiraled to avoid taking fire and began to rattle off commands. “Blue and Red Squadron, engage _ Finalizer _ cannons—”  
“Belay,” Leia barked. “All squadrons return to _ Perpetua. _ Disengage and get out of there.”  
Poe balked. “If we leave now, they’ll take Jultan.”  
“We were too late,” said Finn. “The _ Finalizer _ must have already been on the way here.”  
Frustrated, Poe said, “We can still do this. If we separate the destroyers and get them away from Jultan—”  
“You can’t beat two destroyers, Commander Dameron,” Leia said sharply. “Especially not the _ Finalizer_. Regroup with _ Perpetua _ now, before they launch TIEs. That’s an order, Poe.”  
Poe gave a short curse, but he obeyed. He diverted sharply from his course, circling around and straightening out as he swung back towards the _ Perpetua. _ Finn and the other X-wings followed, and within a few moments, all of them had flashed into hyperspace and left Jultan Forge behind. The _ Perpetua _ lingered just long enough to see the First Order closing in around the forge. Then the view through the bridge window disappeared behind the blue streaks of hyperspace.


	2. Chapter 2

General Hux paced the bridge with his hands folded neatly at the small of his back, his eyes fixed through the wide panoramic window. “Hail command of the _ Annihilator_,” he ordered.  
A blue-hued hologram of Commodore Tebessa appeared before Hux. She stood rigid, an arm across her chest. “General Hux,” she acknowledged. “Your intervention is much appreciated. My crew will prepare to send squadrons into Jultan Forge and complete the acquisition.”  
“Damage to your ship?” Hux inquired.  
“Minimal. Surface weapons will need to be offlined for no more than a few hours.”  
“Commence repairs. The _ Finalizer _ will provide cover if necessary.”  
She nodded curtly. “Thank you, General. Tebessa out.”  
The hologram had just vanished when Hux heard Lieutenant Umano’s sharp steps and turned towards her. She halted as she drew up beside Hux. “The Resistance has fled the quadrant, but we are able to calculate their trajectory. Shall we pursue?”  
Hux contemplated. Following the Resistance now, while they still nursed their wounds, could result in a swift victory. Unfortunately, such an operation would require the approval of Supreme Leader Snoke. Since the loss of Starkiller Base, however, all communications with Leader Snoke had ceased. Hux was certain that Snoke had turned his attention back to the search for Skywalker now that the Resistance had successfully retrieved the map to his location. Hux’s initiatives had become secondary.   
Though Leader Snoke had made himself inaccessible to Hux, perhaps he had been more communicative with his favored apprentice Kylo Ren.   
Hux turned back towards Umano. “Maintain a trace on the Resistance starfighters until I return.”  
Umano responded with an affirmative, stepping back as Hux swept past her and off of the bridge.

***

Hux made his way to the _ Finalizer’s _ medical bay. He went directly to the area sequestered off from the main floor of the infirmary that was reserved for high ranking personnel such as himself, division commanders, or in this instance, Kylo Ren.   
Since the collapse of Starkiller Base, Ren had been under critical medical supervision. He had been found in the forests near the crippled oscillator, unconscious and half frozen. Hux had shouldered Ren’s weight for only a moment as they brought him into the shuttle, but Hux’s greatcoat had come away soaked in Ren’s blood.   
Moments after their shuttle left the atmosphere of Starkiller Base, the planet was gone.   
Hux felt a familiar anger coil within him. He should have been revelling in the successful destruction of the Hosnian system. The First Order should have been ruling the galaxy by now. Instead, he’d had to work tirelessly to orchestrate the First Order’s rapid recovery from such a catastrophic setback.  
A droid approached Hux at the door to Ren’s medical chambers. Hux stood, impatient, as the droid identified him. His clearance was confirmed and the door slid open. Hux braced himself for confrontation as he stepped inside.   
The room was silent. A long pane of glass stretched along the back wall of the room, providing a picturesque view of Jultan Forge and the _ Annihilator_. Silvery clouds of debris drifted past the window, strangely peaceful in the wake of the recent firefight. On the bed nearest the window lay Kylo Ren.  
He was asleep.   
Hux cautiously approached his bedside. Despite weeks of recovery, Ren still appeared to be in dreadful condition. Thick bandaging obscured his face as well as his torso. Any skin left bare was covered in sickly yellow bruises.   
Hux decidedly lacked time to wait around for Ren to heal. Irritated that he would have to speak to Ren some other time, Hux turned back towards the window and procured a silver container from his coat. He extracted a cigarette, placed it between his lips and lit it in one swift motion.   
“What are you doing here?”  
Hux didn’t shift his gaze from the window. He exhaled slowly and watched as the smoke curled against the glass before dissipating. “So you’re alive after all,” he murmured. “Damn.”  
The bed shifted and Hux turned in time to see a wince cross Ren’s bandaged face as he sat up. The sheets fell from his chest, revealing the most severe wound at his waist still wrapped in layers upon layers of medical tape. Ren seemed to become aware of his state and tensed, glowering at Hux.   
“You’ll be pleased to hear that the seizure of Jultan Forge was successful,” Hux went on, “thanks to your lack of interference. A shame for the Resistance. I’m certain that they would have appreciated your help.”   
Ren gave him a black look. Were he not bedridden, it may have been threatening. “What do you want?” he growled.   
“I’m here to see if Leader Snoke has deigned to give you any further orders. He has become unresponsive to my messages.”   
Ren turned away.  
“Ah,” Hux breathed. “No word for you either? Given your failures at Starkiller Base, I can’t say I’m surprised. Defeated by an escaped prisoner and a renegade stormtrooper with a single weapon between them. A rather pathetic outcome from Leader Snoke’s prized apprentice, I must say.”  
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ren bit out. “There were others.”  
“And at any moment did it cross your mind to send warning to my command?”  
Ren was silent.   
“I thought not.” Hux took another drag. “And yet, the consequences of this disaster will not fall to you. Your personal endeavors with Skywalker and that desert world scavenger interfered with my work and it has cost the First Order its most powerful asset. Thousands of resources lost. Years of effort gone.”   
“I’m not to blame for your failed planetary shields,” Ren snapped.   
Hux leaned in close to Ren. “I would provide you the same fate given to Captain Phasma for her errors,” Hux hissed through his teeth. “You are spared only by Snoke’s favor.”  
Ren’s mouth twitched into a thin smile. “But it’s Snoke’s favor you need, isn’t it?”  
Hux’s cigarette burned down to his fingers, singeing his skin. “Since you didn’t have the decency to die, the very least you could do is get Leader Snoke’s attention so that I may command my own damn fleet.”  
Hux threw the smoldering remains of his cigarette to the floor, crushing it beneath the heel of his boot. “I don’t care if you have to beg. Just do it.”  
He had no interest in Ren’s response. He pivoted and strode out of the infirmary, leaving Ren in isolated silence.


	3. Chapter 3

A small star brought light to another gray morning on Ahch-To. Rey watched it rise from her perch on a tall cliff overlooking the sea. She had come to this perch for the first time a few weeks before, soon after she had arrived on this world.  
Luke’s reception of her had been less than warm. For the first few days, he had turned his back on her. Eventually he spoke to her, only to tell her to leave the island while holding out the silver hilt of the lightsaber Rey had brought to him.   
Rey had refused to accept it and told him she wasn’t leaving. Luke stood silently, never removing the hood that shadowed his face, before dropping the lightsaber at Rey’s feet. She tracked Luke to a small rudimentary shack built into a sheltered outcropping where she finally confronted him, demanding he help her become a Jedi.   
He refused, initially, but Rey persisted. Finally, he told her that he would begin to teach her once she “understood this island.”   
When asked how and what that meant, Luke had told her to meditate. When asked how to meditate, he had given a deep sigh.   
Luke brought her to this cliff for their first lesson. He told her that understanding came from within the Force. He taught her to tame her breathing, how to focus her mind. The first few times she tried it on her own, she became frustrated. Nothing seemed to happen. The air was too cold and the sea too loud to focus for any length of time.   
Today, Rey sat upon the rock, trying to remain patient. She had not seen Luke since that first lesson, and Rey grew tired of wasting time. The Resistance could not wait forever.  
Rey drew a deep breath and sat up straight, gazing over the vast, temperate ocean. Inhaling the salty air, she closed her eyes. Very slowly, the wind rushing in her ears fell to a muted roar. The crashing waves below had become a soft, distant thunder. Her focus deepened, and then the only sounds were her own breathing and heartbeat. She felt the long grasses of Ahch-To, the mossy stones, the tingling rain. The island felt alive, suddenly, as if it were listening to Rey as well. Shakily, Rey reached out to the energy within the island, and a voiceless whisper reached back out to her.   
_ Rey,_ it breathed.   
The island was pulling her inward. She followed it readily, unafraid. She saw the island shifting—its mountains gentler, cliff faces less weathered. And the Light that she’d sensed before suddenly felt a thousandfold stronger, pure and overwhelming.   
She saw a glimmer of faces: two men and three women, all in long gray robes. They were setting foot onto the island for the first time, their exhilaration and joy at finally being here flooding through Rey as if she were alongside them. They were listening to the island as it listened to them, communing with the depth of the Force that lay within it. The Light contained in the planet’s core rose up to meet them.   
One of the women spoke. Rey didn’t know the language but she understood anyway: _ Here,_ the woman said, a smile growing on her face. _This is the place_.  
She saw a valley, washed in sunlight, and through a blur of years the temples came into being. The memories tangled and weaved together, those of the island and those of the people who had first found it.  
The temples were pristinely beautiful, their interiors bright, the carvings intricate and flawless. Inside, the woman spoke the word for the first time: _ Jedi. _   
The echo of it seemed to expand, rolling forward in time, carrying Rey back to the present. Her eyes flew open and she landed on her elbows, dizzy and lightheaded. The tiny sun was higher in the sky now, the clouds and fog disappearing as the air warmed.   
“What did you see?”  
Rey startled at Luke’s voice, scrambling to her feet. Still panting, she said, “The island. I saw everything—the people who built the temples. I felt it.”  
Luke scrutinized her. “So you do have the Force,” he said slowly. “I had to be sure.”   
He removed his hood. It revealed a withered face, evidence of facing these harsh winds for many years, and waves of graying hair. He said, “A great nexus of the Force lies within this world. It used to be one of many, but now I sense that this may be the last.” He paused and then fixed her with a level stare. “Rey, did you truly come here to seek my training?”   
“Yes,” Rey breathed.   
Luke nodded. “There is much this island has to teach you,” he said. “Follow me.”

***

He led her up and past the hut he had built, to a higher cliff of bare stone. From the gravel he procured a rock no larger than the palm of Rey’s hand. Luke balanced the rock precariously at the edge of the cliff. He went back to stand beside Rey and said, “Reach out and call it to you.”  
“The rock?”  
“Yes.”  
Rey nodded and lifted her hand, stretching her fingers out. Keeping her eyes focused on it, she used the Force to try and bring it to her palm.   
Several moments passed. Rey faltered, then tried again. The rock stubbornly remained in place. Rey did not even feel as if the rock was resisting her—she simply could not grasp it. Frustrated, she dropped her hand. “I don’t understand,” she said.  
“Didn’t you say you had done this before?”   
“Yes,” Rey insisted. “The lightsaber just flew into my hand. It was so easy.”  
“Ah. Well—” Luke picked up the lightsaber beside Rey and twisted the silver hilt in several places. A latch released and the hilt split into sections, revealing a hollow chamber. Inside, a fierce blue light shone brilliantly. “This is a kyber crystal. It contains the raw energy of the Force and channels far more power than you or I ever could. The reason this lightsaber came to you so easily is because the Force was reaching to you as well.”  
Luke resealed the lightsaber and set it aside. He nodded towards the stone still waiting on the cliff. “For anything else, the concept is the same. Find the Force around or within the object and then pull it towards you.”  
Rey frowned. “But that’s just a rock.”  
“The Force flows through everything, Rey,” Luke reminded her. “Even rocks.”  
“But—”  
“Just try it again.”  
Rey obeyed. She outstretched her hand once more. This time, she closed her eyes and envisioned that she had closed the distance between herself and the rock and stood over it. Rey reached to touch the rock’s smoothed surface. Her fingers encircled around it, feeling its weight as she lifted it—   
Rey was startled as something struck her palm. She looked at the stone in her hand, a disbelieving laugh escaping her. Proudly, she showed it to Luke. “I did it,” she exclaimed.   
Luke gave her a brief smile. “You did,” he commended. “Now do it a hundred times.”   
“What?”  
Luke turned and began to walk back down the overlook. “And try to keep your eyes open.”  
Rey opened her mouth to protest, but she deflated as Luke continued onwards. Sighing, she returned the stone to the edge of the cliff and resumed her stance a distance away from it. She lifted her hand and tried again.


	4. Chapter 4

Leia arrived on the densely populated world of Coruscant. The oldest and largest of the Core Worlds, it was now even more impossibly overcrowded as those displaced by the destruction of the Hosnian system had taken refuge on this planet and the ones nearby. A world of polished towers constructed with the most advanced technology, the planet’s surface had vanished under an endless sea of white and gray buildings.   
The polluted air of Coruscant was tinged with its citizens’ fears. Many mourned the loss of Hosnia and remained in the grip of terror imposed upon them by the First Order. The New Republic Senate had been silent since the attack, offering little comfort to the people who looked to it for answers. For all they knew, the First Order would soon strike again.  
Leia ascended the palatial steps that led to the Great Senate Hall, a massive and imposing structure of plated silver that reflected the hazy skies above. At the top of the steps was a man dressed in long, gray robes. Elegant and poised, he looked like a statue among the towering marble columns.   
“General Organa,” the man exclaimed, a smile on his angular face. “How wonderful it is to see you again.”  
“Senator Chiron,” replied Leia. “It’s been too long.”  
“I wish that our reunion were under more heartening circumstances.”  
Leia ducked her head in agreement. “Thank you for meeting with me.”  
“Anything for an old friend. Come now, let me show you inside.”  
He turned and entered a shadowed passageway beneath towering arches. Leia followed him through the maze of halls. They eventually reached a private chamber, outfitted with a lounge and a work area. The room had a high ceiling and a large window that offered a panoramic view of the crowded skyline.  
“Coruscant welcomes you,” Chiron said with a sweep of his hands. He gestured at a pair of sofas by the windows. “Please, make yourself comfortable.”  
Leia thanked him and settled onto the cushions while Chiron sat across from her. She noted the slight pinch in his expression. Since she had last seen him in the days when she was a senator alongside him, he seemed to have new lines in face, more streaks of silver in his hair. Despite his friendly demeanor, Leia sensed a deep weariness in him.  
“It’s not quite like Hosnian Prime,” Chiron spoke wistfully. “What a shame it is to have lost such a beautiful world.”  
Leia nodded. “It was a relief to hear that you were safe.”  
“I was off world settling a diplomatic squabble. And to think, I had dreaded the travel.”  
“How many members of the Senate were lost?”  
“Too many. Far too many.” Chiron shook his head. “Those who remained decided that I, as the representative of Coruscant, would temporarily lead the Senate as we move forward from this devastation.”  
“So,” Leia questioned, “does that make you Chancellor of the New Republic?”  
“Unofficially, yes.” Chiron pressed his fingers to his temple. “It has been difficult keeping our citizens at ease. I’m not quite certain I’ve accomplished that.”  
“They want answers,” said Leia. “Have there been discussions of retaliation against the First Order?”  
Chiron was hesitant. “Some. There have also been talks of…conditional surrender.”  
“Surrender?” Leia exclaimed.   
“With steep terms, of course,” Chiron added quickly.  
“Do you really think that the Order will negotiate a peaceful surrender?” Leia demanded.  
“Well, you know that I must remain impartial and willing to consider all options.”  
“Surrender isn’t an option,” Leia replied flatly.   
Chiron avoided her gaze. “I am doing everything that I can, Leia.”  
“Then let me help you.” Leia leaned in closer. “The Resistance is ready to fight alongside the New Republic fleet. We know the Order. The longer we wait, the more powerful they become. They are already rebuilding.”  
Chiron’s jaw set. “Yes, I was informed of Jultan Forge.”  
“Yes. With Jultan, they are replacing what they lost with Starkiller Base. They need to be stopped before it’s too late.” Leia drew a breath before she continued. “I need you, Chiron, and you need the Resistance. I am willing to share my command with you, if you’ll help us go after the Order.”  
“That won’t be necessary,” said a voice from the door.  
At the entrance of Chiron’s office stood a man dressed in a crisp uniform bearing the colors of the New Republic.   
“Ah, excellent timing,” Chiron exclaimed, jumping to his feet. “Leia, please allow me to introduce you. This is Admiral Matoc Divo, recently promoted to command the New Republic Fleet.”  
Leia rose to meet Divo as he approached her. He stood more than a head taller than Leia. “General Organa,” he said, “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you. There’s a lot we need to discuss.”  
Leia quirked an eyebrow. “Is there?”  
“Senator Chiron has been telling me about your ventures with the Resistance. You’ve done impressive work by yourself. You have my respect.”  
Something about Divo’s lopsided grin was instantly grating to Leia. “I wasn’t aware that the New Republic had commissioned the rank of admiral,” she said.  
“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” Divo replied. “The Senate has been very supportive since I took control of fleet preparations.”  
“Preparations for what?” asked Leia. “Chiron informs me that there have been talks of surrender.”  
“The New Republic is more than ready to take on the Order when they make their next move.”  
“They _ have _ made their next move. Are you aware that they are targeting remote New Republic assets? Do you know that they’ve already taken Jultan Forge?”  
Divo waved a flippant hand. “Not a problem.”  
Incredulously, Leia echoed, “Not a problem?”  
“That’s how I see it.”  
Leia bit her tongue. “Any plans on taking it back?”  
“Well...” Divo glanced back at Chiron before continuing, “No, not really. It’s an automated facility, so no one was hurt and there aren’t any prisoners. Going over there to pick a fight would be a waste of our time.”  
“I risked my pilots to defend Jultan,” Leia snapped. “I requested aid from the New Republic and my transmission was never even acknowledged.” She cast a glance towards Chiron, who paled. “Do you not realize that the Order is using Jultan Forge to rearm themselves?”  
“Leia, please,” Chiron said weakly, “I would have sent aid, truly, but—”  
“But,” Divo broke in, “you chose to put your own pilots in danger. That’s not the responsibility of the New Republic.”  
“The safety of the New Republic is your responsibility. With Jultan, you may have handed the Order exactly what they need to destroy another system.”   
Divo’s eyes cut to her. “That’s not something you’ll need to worry about, General Organa.”  
Leia gave him a flat smile. “I’m not your enemy. Try to remember that.”  
“Admiral Divo,” Chiron spoke up, muted. “I really must be speaking with Leia alone.”  
Divo’s mouth curled into a sneer. “Of course,” he said, leaning away. “It was a pleasure to meet you, General. I hope we can work together in the future.”  
“I look forward to it,” Leia replied icily.   
Divo made his exit without another word. When the door closed behind him, Chiron let out a long breath. “I apologize for that, Leia. Admiral Divo can be…difficult.”  
Leia allowed a smile to return to her face. “He seems charming.”  
Straightening, Chiron continued, “There’s something I wish to ask of you. A Senate meeting has been scheduled in a few days’ time, and I would like to invite you to attend. I am certain that there are many besides me who would be pleased to see you again."  
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Leia said.   
“We have accommodations prepared for you. Please,” Chiron implored, reaching to lay his hand atop hers. “I feel it is important that your voice is heard.”  
Leia hesitated. She had not planned to ever return to the halls of the Senate, but perhaps a platform to reach an interplanetary audience would be useful. With this Divo wedging himself between Leia and Chiron, she could use a few more allies.  
“All right,” she said, “I’ll go.”


	5. Chapter 5

In the first few days after Starkiller, Kylo had been in such a daze that he was not sure whether the feeling of Snoke in his mind was real or imagined. But as his strength returned—agonizingly slowly—he became more and more aware that Snoke was seeking him. He never bothered to summon Kylo outright; he simply observed, taking note of Kylo’s exhaustion and dizzying pain, which he could never hide fast enough for Snoke not to see it. Each time Snoke did this, he would quietly withdraw after a few moments, his disapproval tangible, his impatience giving way to disdain.  
It was two days after Hux’s uninvited appearance when Snoke finally pushed Kylo’s humiliation to a breaking point. He had limped from the sequestered wing of the infirmary to the Holochamber, leaving the medical droid that had tried to persuade him to stay in a sparking heap behind him.  
Snoke’s projection loomed out of the darkness as Kylo stepped into the Holochamber. “You are finally on your feet again, apprentice,” he rasped as Kylo drew nearer to him. “I am glad to see your recovery is progressing, at long last. There is much to do.”  
“The girl has gone to Skywalker,” Kylo said, spitting out the name. “I will find them and kill them both.”  
“In time, perhaps,” Snoke said. “But your quest for revenge will have to wait. I have other plans for you.”  
There was a long silence. Finally, Kylo said, “I don’t want revenge, Supreme Leader. But Rey will only become more of a threat now that she and Skywalker are together.”  
“Don’t want revenge? Ah, but don’t you, Master Kylo?” Snoke said. “You were very nearly killed by Rey when she had only just begun to test her strength. She defeated you in lightsaber combat, resisted your attempts to overpower her with the Force. And she secured the map to Skywalker that you so desperately sought. She has bested you in every way. And yet you do not seek revenge?”  
Behind the mask, Kylo’s mouth twitched twice before he said, carefully, “She and Skywalker are dangerous. They will be the beginning of a Jedi uprising.”  
“Dangerous as the scavenger may have been to you, there is something more dangerous to the First Order,” Snoke said dismissively. “That is not the task I have for you. You are to retrieve an item for me, an item that has far more worth to our enemies than an untrained child and a cowardly old man.”  
His jaw rigid, Kylo asked, “What will I retrieve?”  
“You will go to seek a holocron,” Snoke said. “An ancient device that will grant knowledge forgotten for generations. Retrieve the holocron and you may have a chance at beating the girl and Skywalker next time you meet.”  
“And this holocron is more urgent than Skywalker and the next generation of Jedi?”  
“It is not for you to question, Kylo Ren,” Snoke said, a threat rising in his voice. “Your insolence is remarkable for one who could barely crawl here from the infirmary.”  
“I can defeat them both,” Kylo said, unable to keep his voice calm as he finally raised his eyes to Snoke’s. “Give me permission to go after them and—”  
“And allow you to risk everything that the First Order has built while you lay bleeding in the snow again? I had hoped your failure would teach you humility. Yet you stand here and ask to go after the girl. You faced her and she defeated you. If you face her again, you will be defeated again. You were weak then, and you are weak now.”  
Kylo did not answer, trying to keep his breathing level.  
“Ah, I see now,” Snoke said slowly, “you were expecting praise. For killing your father.”  
“I will retrieve this holocron,” Kylo said in a muted snarl, “and then I will kill Rey and Skywalker.”   
“Not yet, Kylo Ren. You are not ready to face them nor to retrieve the holocron. You will lead the other Knights only after I see that you are prepared. Perhaps by then you’ll have shown yourself to be worthy of my time. And if not, perhaps Rey will prove a more suitable apprentice.”  
As he spoke, Kylo gradually became aware that the wound in his side was bleeding through his tunic.  
Snoke regarded him for several moments. Kylo did not look back at him and did not fight Snoke’s presence as it sifted musingly through his thoughts.   
“General Hux is also to blame for Starkiller,” Snoke intoned. “If you had been better able to communicate with him, the worst of the catastrophes may have been avoided. From now on, you are to attend his war council meetings and to remain aware of the First Order’s military operations.”  
Kylo said nothing, barely listening, his gaze locked straight ahead.  
A stabbing pain pierced through Kylo’s skull, a reminder that Snoke was still in his thoughts.  
He said tonelessly, “Yes, Supreme Leader.”  
Snoke regarded him for a few more moments. “Go back to your hospital bed, Kylo Ren,” he sneered. “Your training begins tomorrow.”  
His image shimmered and vanished. Kylo stood there in silence. Then, pressing a hand to his side, he stumbled back towards the infirmary.


	6. Chapter 6

“General,” Umano said, “All members of the council have arrived.”  
Hux glanced out the main bridge window. The _Annihilator_, fully repaired after its brief encounter with the Resistance, hovered off the _Finalizer’s _starboard. Staggered beneath it was the _Maelstrom, _a smaller capital ship, and then the black-plated hull of the _Devastis_—the newest and most advanced of the fleet. It was a gathering of impressive technological power, one that had not been convened in the history of the First Order.   
The council was made up of the highest officers aboard the lead capital ships. Each of them represented the command of a separate division of the First Order. Now, they came to the _Finalizer _to report to Hux.  
Hux left the bridge and headed towards the conferences decks. 

  
  
  


***

  
  
  


Over the next few minutes, the council room filled in: the _ Annihilator’s _ Commodore Tebessa and Admiral Rhys arrived first, then Major Olmyn and Intelligence Director Hollis from the _ Maelstrom_. The last to arrive was Commander Loque of the _ Devastis_, who gave Hux a snide look as he entered.  
Hux waited until the chatter of the room had subsided before he began to speak. He gave a cursory welcome to the visiting officers, then touched the control panel embedded in the table. The holo projector in the table’s center flickered to life and a scale model of Jultan Forge reached nearly to the ceiling.  
“Thanks to the acumen of Commodore Tebessa, Jultan Forge is ours,” Hux said, his eyes on the gently revolving holo. “This puts us considerably ahead of our original plans. Commodore, you’ve completed your assessment of the facility. What have you found?”  
Tebessa took over the holo with the control panel at her own seat. The image of Jultan’s exterior dissolved into a graph plotting the facility’s contents: industrial machinery, raw materials, auxiliary technology.   
“Initially we expected Jultan to be most valuable in terms of its store of Codoan copper and farium,” she said. “But now, we believe that the real worth of Jultan is its thermowelding—”   
The sound of heavy footfalls interrupted her. Tebessa fell silent, her eyes fixed on something over Hux’s shoulder.  
Frowning, Hux turned to follow her gaze and found himself staring into the dented chrome and steel of Kylo Ren’s mask.  
Ren said nothing, just stood in the doorway, apparently enjoying the effect of his arrival. Tebessa and the rest of the officers stared at him, confused and uneasy.  
Hux had hoped to ignore Ren’s presence entirely, as he usually did when Ren made sudden, inexplicable appearances on the bridge. But apparently that would not be possible.   
“What are you doing here?” Hux asked.  
Ren’s voice, already distorted through the modulator, sounded curiously muffled. Hux wondered if there were still bandages on his face. “Leader Snoke has told you that I am to stay informed about the military operations of the Order.”  
“I assumed that meant I would send you the daily composite report.”  
“You assumed incorrectly.”  
Hux traced his tongue along the inside of his teeth. “Take a seat, Ren,” he said dryly, and indicated the empty chair to Hux’s left. “Commodore Tebessa, please go on."  
Casting one last uncertain glance at Ren, Tebessa cleared her throat and resumed her report. The news was promising: They’d be able to begin rebuilding the fleet they’d lost at Starkiller far more aggressively than Hux had anticipated. Tebessa requested to remain at Jultan to oversee the operations and coordinate defensive forces in case the New Republic tried to reclaim it, and Hux agreed.  
If Ren had a reaction to any of this, he did not express it. He was silent from the moment he sat down. When the meeting was over, Ren waited until everyone else was gone before he rose from his seat and silently brushed past Hux as he left.

  
  
  


***

  
  
  


The next time the council convened in the same war room, Hux was dismayed to see Ren among those at the table. With the Jultan conference, he’d rather hoped to bore Ren out of following Snoke’s request to be present at these meetings. But he was there when Hux arrived, in the seat beside Hux’s.  
He had little time to devote any thought to Ren as the meeting began. There were more officers here than the handful that had attended the last council; that had only been an analytical meeting to review the new information that had come in from Jultan. But this, Hux expected, would be the summit that decided the First Order’s direction in the wake of Starkiller.   
As soon as the last of the visiting officers filed in and took their seats, the collective attention of the room was drawn to Hux. He gave a final glance towards Ren, who had not spoken but, Hux sensed, was watching Hux closely.   
“I know we all have pressing work to do, so let us waste no time. It is my understanding that a number of those in high command have expressed support, and indeed commenced preparations, for the construction of a new superweapon—essentially a replacement for what was lost with Starkiller Base. However, any replacement will, inherently, possess the same vulnerabilities that brought down Starkiller.”  
In the glimmer of the holo display, the room watched Starkiller implode, its massive structure swiftly reduced to a field of debris.   
“And, if we are not willing to take a lesson from Starkiller, we need only look to the Death Star and its successor.” The holo replicated each catastrophe in turn as it was named. “We cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of the past.”  
From the ruins of the second Death Star, the holo shifted to a galactic map that marked the outposts and bases controlled by the New Republic. “During the thirty years between the fall of the Empire and the destruction of Hosnia, the New Republic implemented a considerable military and political presence both within the Core and well beyond. As long as these installations are controlled by the New Republic, they are merely wasted potential. In the hands of a centralized, cohesive government—in our hands—they are the building blocks of galactic control.  
“In the wake of Hosnia’s destruction, the illegitimate Senate of the New Republic is deeply fragmented. Their already weak control of these planets has begun to fail. With our intelligence divisions infiltrating the Senate, we fully expect the New Republic to further destabilize in the coming weeks and months. This will only hasten our ability to regain the Outer Rim.  
“Building anything to the scale of Starkiller Base will take years. We can begin taking these Republic-held planets immediately, with what we have right now. The capture of Jultan Forge puts us in an ideal position to launch this strategy as soon as it is approved by this council.”  
Director Hollis leaned her elbows forward on the table. “And what will happen when we run out of these little outposts to conquer?”  
Hux turned his eyes to her, unsettlingly intense. “Then we take the Core Worlds. With the Outer and Inner Rim forming a noose around the Galactic Core, we will be able to either siege them or starve them into submission.”  
“All very intriguing concepts, I’m sure, General Hux,” Admiral Rhys broke in. “But before we waste too much of the council’s time debating the finer points of your plan, I have to ask: Do you have the authorization to put such a plan into action? I’m given to understand that our Supreme Leader Snoke still has the final say in these matters.”  
Before Hux could reply, Ren said in a drawl, “He makes a good point, General Hux. What does Supreme Leader Snoke have to say?”  
“Stay out of this, Ren,” Hux said dismissively, without looking towards him.  
“Does that mean Leader Snoke hasn’t agreed to your plan?”  
“It means that we do not have time for interruptions. This does not concern you.”  
“It does if you’re planning to mislead about the Supreme Leader’s intentions.”  
“I am misleading no one. Leader Snoke does not interfere with my authority to command the First Order military.”  
Ren gave a short, derisive laugh. “Is that what you’ve been telling the council?”  
The officers around the table glanced at each other, shifting uneasily. Even the ones Hux knew were in support of his plan looked suddenly doubtful.  
In one clipped movement, Hux rose from the table. “Come with me, Ren.”  
Ren stared back at him. “What?” he scoffed.  
“I said come with me. Admiral Rhys, my apologies, I will return to your point momentarily. Major Olmyn, you’ve been briefed on the preliminary stages of the First Order’s expansion. Please share that information with the council. This won’t take long.”   
Hux strode past Ren to the door. With the eyes of the room on him, Ren rose slowly to his feet and followed.  
Hux led him a short distance down the corridor, turning into an empty room. Once Ren had stepped inside, Hux touched a button beside the door to close it and then turned towards him.  
“Listen to me very carefully, Ren, as I do not intend to repeat myself,” Hux said shortly. Although he couldn’t see Ren’s eyes, he still felt them on his face. “I am fully aware that you have no interest in these meetings, and that you are only here on order from Leader Snoke. I assure you, I am no more pleased about the arrangement than you are. But let me make something very clear. When you are in a council meeting, or on the bridge, you are to respect my authority. You are not to contradict my orders. And in fact, as a rule, since these meetings are of so little relevance to you, you are to remain silent unless spoken to.”  
Ren said nothing. Hux suddenly found the inscrutability of his mask infuriating. When Hux continued, without intending it, a low snarl rose in his voice. “Starkiller Base was my inheritance as General of the First Order. This, the work I’m doing now, whatever the First Order does next—that is mine. I will allow no interference nor obstruction. Least of all from you.”  
Hux paused, drawing in a slow breath. “Neither of us find ourselves in Snoke’s good graces these days. We’d both like to change that. The fewer problems we cause for each other, the sooner we both get what we want.” Hux leaned in closer to Ren, his tone falling to a gentle murmur. “But make no mistake, I am willing to cause problems for you. I can make your life difficult, Ren. I hope you know that.”  
Hux straightened. Ren’s head lifted incrementally as he did so, following Hux’s movement. In the absolute silence, Ren’s breathing was the only sound.   
Hux started to leave the room, pausing at the door. “Are you coming back?” he asked coldly.   
Ren looked mutely back at him and made no move to follow.  
Hux gave a dark chuckle. “Good,” he said, and walked back to the council room alone.


	7. Chapter 7

“We now convene this gathering of the New Republic Senate.” Chiron’s voice boomed across the massive hall, amplified by droids circling the highest levels of the tiered gallery. “Today, we are joined by a former member of our assembly, the current leader of the Resistance, General Leia Organa.”  
The hall was silent. Standing at the center of the floor, Leia was surrounded on all sides by faces she no longer recognized. They stared back at her with wary eyes.  
Chiron continued, “General Organa is here to provide insight regarding the incident at Jultan Forge, which has been captured by the First Order. This is the first large scale act of aggression since the destruction of Starkiller Base. The floor will allow General Organa herself to recount the events from the perspective of the Resistance.”  
A projection droid went to Leia’s side. Looking around the hall, she noticed that more than half of the chamber was empty. Some senators had been lost at Hosnia, but not this many.  
She steeled herself. “My Resistance fighters attempted to intervene in the First Order attack on Jultan Forge. However, the Order’s reinforcements quickly arrived and we were forced to retreat. With the forge in their control, we can only assume that they are rebuilding what they lost with Starkiller. Possibly even beyond that. The Senate must take action before their armada becomes unstoppable. The New Republic fleet needs to take a stand against the First Order.”  
Just as Leia paused for breath, another voice cut over her. “And what is to become of the Resistance?”  
All eyes turned towards the row near the bottom of the chamber, an area reserved for the most eminent worlds. There, draped in a silvery gown, was Senator Carise Sindian, the influential representative of Arkanis. Sindian and Leia had an extensive history, and Leia had hoped to avoid dealing with her. Now, as Sindian fixed Leia with a vindictive look, Leia realized that Sindian was going to resume her role as a major thorn in Leia’s side.   
Chiron, flustered, said, “Can you, ah, clarify your meaning?”  
Sindian’s gaze never left Leia as she spoke. “Their purpose is complete. They stepped in during the New Republic’s hour of need, but now our fleet is prepared. The Resistance, left unchecked, will only bring danger upon our citizens.”  
“What’s your thinking on that, Senator Sindian?” Leia challenged.  
Sindian gave an icy smile. “Well, General Organa, the Resistance has taken severe military action time and time again without any oversight from New Republic command.”  
“If the Resistance had waited for approval from the Senate before taking action, the First Order would have destroyed the rest of the New Republic just like they destroyed Hosnia,” retorted Leia.  
“The Senate had contacted the Order to negotiate a ceasefire. But that opportunity was lost when the Resistance engaged Starkiller Base.”  
“There is no negotiating with the Order,” Leia said. “They won’t rest until anyone who opposes them is dead.”  
From above them, a voice cried, “You are provoking them!”  
The projection droids rushed from Sindian to the highest levels of the Senate chamber, where representatives of outlying worlds were seated. A man stood and the droids surrounded him, amplifying his voice. He continued, “Many worlds of the Outer Rim are not militant. The Resistance cannot guarantee anyone a thorough defense, and yet you provoke the Order into using lethal force.”  
Leia stared him down. “They will use lethal force whether the Resistance is involved or not.”  
Another senator spoke up. “To the remotest of New Republic colonies that are often raided by pirate organizations, the First Order has offered supplies and protection.”  
“Protection from what?” Leia growled. “Themselves?”  
The senator hesitated, and a clamor arose throughout the chamber. Leia turned to Chiron. He shrank from her accusatory gaze. “Did you know about this? That the First Order is recruiting outer worlds?”  
Chiron faltered. “Well, not exactly—”  
Sindian interrupted him. In a bold voice, she said, “What of the resources used by their bases and their ships? What innocent lives may have been lost due to their unorganized attacks? However noble they claim their cause to be, the Resistance is as much a threat to galactic peace as any rogue criminal organization.”  
Leia fumed as Sindian’s words were met with a wave of applause. Sindian stood glowing in the attention, a self-satisfied smile on her face.   
“The Resistance has only ever fought to protect the New Republic,” Leia said. “We have defended against First Order invasions from the beginning. We tracked down restricted Imperial technology before they could find it and use it, and we have reported all of their movements ever since Starkiller.”  
“And yet, you failed to prevent Starkiller Base from destroying the Hosnian system,” Sindian said coldly.   
“I warned the Senate again and again that the First Order was building something with devastating power,” Leia snapped, “and for that, I was called paranoid.”  
“Your paranoia has evolved into delirium, and the Resistance’s capabilities escalate unchecked every passing day. The New Republic has tolerated this unauthorized faction for too long, and the Senate must take action. The people of Arkanis will be the first to take a stand. Unless Resistance operations are officially condemned, Arkanis shall be forced to consider permanent secession from the jurisdiction of the New Republic.”   
A beat of silence. Then, the hall erupted into chaos. Senators from all worlds stood and shouted at each other. Some directed their anger down towards Leia.   
This was it, she thought. If the First Order were to arrive right now, they would be disappointed to see how easy the final battle would be. The New Republic was broken at its core.


	8. Chapter 8

Luke had woken her before sunrise and told her to meet him outside in ten minutes. Rey had dressed hurriedly and then stepped out into the frigid pre-dawn gloom.  
He gave her a cursory glance, then beckoned for her to follow and they set off across the island.  
They passed no one else as they walked. Rey had not quite been able to determine if there were other inhabitants of the island, although she sometimes thought she saw the flash of dark, furtive eyes among the stands of trees. For perhaps a mile, they walked in complete silence. Rey wanted to ask where they were going and how long before they got there, but she had the distinct sense that she wouldn’t get an answer.  
Finally, after the sky above the ocean had cycled from indigo to pink to a pearlescent blue, they came over the crest of a hill. Crumbled steps snaked down into a valley, leading to gray stone ruins obscured by a thick fog.   
“What is this place?” Rey asked.  
“Listen.”  
Rey glanced at him, then looked back towards the strange architecture. Tentatively, she lifted a hand and extended it outwards. She closed her eyes and slowed her breathing.   
Nothing at first, only the taste of damp morning air. The wind was unexpectedly quiet in the valley, far from the rugged coast. Rey reached farther, beyond the steps and the broken pillars. Through a shadowed entrance, a labyrinth carved deep into the earth. A cold wind blew through the subterranean chambers and into Rey’s ears. Not wind, she realized, but whispers. Below that, an unmistakable thrum of energy.  
“The Force,” she breathed, returning to herself. “The temple from the vision.”  
“Yes,” said Luke. “One of many spread across this world. I believe this to be the first. The power you sense is what drew me to this island many years ago. It’s what brought the ancient Jedi here, too. Now it is time for you to learn all they have left behind.” He gave a gruff nod towards the temple. “Come with me.”  
They entered an overgrown courtyard, stepping over fragmented stones scattered across long grasses. Luke led her through a series of archways, illuminated by sunlight through broken ceilings. As they walked deeper, their path began to descend into the earth. Luke made his way forward with familiar ease. Rey, however, repeatedly fell behind as she stopped to study every marking in the ruins, every side passageway and dark corner.   
They arrived at a huge rounded chamber. A domed ceiling stretched upwards, where a small hole allowed pale sunlight to shine through. The light fell onto a stone pedestal at the center of the room. Luke approached the plinth while Rey marveled at the towering walls that curved over them. Leafy vines snaked up from the cracks in the floor to a series of ledges in the stone that went to the ceiling, desperately reaching towards the sun.  
A pile of decaying books rested upon the pedestal. Even more were stacked on the floor. Luke lifted one and placed it in Rey’s hands. She coughed as a plume of dust rose in her face.   
When Luke spoke, his voice echoed throughout the chamber. “I’ve explored these ruins for many years and gathered any surviving artifacts I could find. Anything that could be sold for scrap has been stolen by scavengers, but these texts remain. These are the teachings of the ancient Jedi, left here a millennia ago.”  
Rey tentatively ran her hand over the delicate, withered binding. “What do they say?”  
“Everything,” Luke stated. “All of the ancient knowledge of the purest Jedi is recorded here. I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of it. Everything I teach you can be found in these texts. You’ll understand the Jedi path as you study.”  
The towering stacks of books were suddenly intimidating to Rey. She had no time to idly sit and read while the Resistance battled the First Order. Hesitantly, she said, “I’m not sure I’ll be able to read everything here.”  
“You won’t be able to unlock the true power of the Force until you do, Rey,” said Luke. “Traditional padawans are raised from birth. Since we don’t have that kind of time, it will take a great deal of discipline if you are ever to undo what you have learned before now.”  
Rey frowned. “What do you mean?”  
“If your training is successful, you will no longer be the scavenger from Jakku,” Luke said. “You must be willing to give that up. That is what the Force is asking of you by giving you this power.”   
Slowly, Rey set the ancient text aside. “But that’s what I am.”  
“And the Force brought you here so that you can let go of that life. A scavenger of a desolate world is no hero, take it from me.” Luke shook his head. “If you want to save the galaxy, you must forget that identity. Rey of Jakku will disappear. You will become Rey the Jedi.”   
Rey swallowed, only able to give a small nod.   
Luke studied her closely. “This temple is a sacred place that I have been guarding for many years now. I would not grant you the privilege of being here if I didn’t feel that you had potential.” When she didn’t answer, he turned away from her. “Find a place here in the temple and meditate on what I’ve told you.”  
Begrudgingly, Rey obeyed. Wandering through the tunnels, she found an empty chamber, much smaller than the one where Luke kept the Jedi texts. The ceiling had fallen through, and outside the sun had begun to drive away the fog. Rain had filled a sunken portion of the floor, and now water steadily dripped into the pool from above.   
Rey dropped into a sitting position near the pool’s edge. The stone was frigid beneath her, but the steady dripping of the water helped her concentrate. Rey closed her eyes and listened. The Light was strong here, as if it resonated within the deep earth. As she slipped deeper into meditation, Rey once again began to hear the whispers that seemed to come from the stone. When she opened her eyes, they didn’t stop. She got up and followed them, running her hand along the walls through dark passageways. She walked blindly, but the voices were getting louder, closer.   
The wall she was following fell away and she stumbled into an opening. She found herself standing inside of a pitch-dark room. The voices ceased, and Rey was left with only the sound of her own breathing echoing in the silence.   
She withdrew her lightsaber to illuminate the chamber. It was similar to the library Luke had brought her to, but here there were only a few dusty piles of items. She lifted her lightsaber to get a better look around when a golden flash caught her eye. She approached a stack of crates leaning against the back wall. With her free hand, Rey carefully pulled aside a tattered cloth and let it fall to the floor, revealing a strange metallic cube. It was lined with golden geometric designs, dulled from years of neglect. It rested comfortably in her palm, though it was heavier than its size would indicate.   
“Rey?”  
She startled, nearly dropping the cube. She turned to find Luke at the entrance of the room, illuminated by a torch in his hand, with his eyebrow quirked.   
“I told you not to wander off,” Luke said. “A lightsaber is not a flashlight, by the way.”  
Chagrined, Rey put her saber away and approached him. “Something called me here,” she said, lifting the cube for Luke to see. “I think it was this.”  
Luke fixed her with an odd stare before taking the object to study it. “A holocron,” he muttered. “They were used by the Jedi to record and store information. It can only be accessed by a Force user who can unlock the protections placed on it.”  
“Can we try to open it?”  
“It’s long dead. If it was possible to activate it, someone else would have found it before now.” He placed it in Rey’s hand. “Destroy it or put it back. It’s just scrap metal.”  
“But couldn’t it have valuable information inside it?”  
“If it did, it’s lost to us now.”   
“Can’t you just try?”  
“Enough, Rey,” Luke snapped. He turned from her, heading back through the dark passageway. “Leave it. We should be going back to the cliffs before it gets dark.”  
Rey faltered. Reluctantly, she went to return the holocron. She cupped it in her hands, studying it. Though it was silent now, she was certain that it had called to her.   
Rey glanced behind her. Luke had disappeared around the corner. She took the tattered cloth and wrapped it around the holocron, then stashed it in her jacket. With one last glance around the chamber, Rey followed Luke. 


	9. Chapter 9

Kylo could not make himself forget what had happened earlier that day. As much as he tried, as certain as he was that it was not important, he couldn’t seem to escape it: he remembered the neat lines of Hux’s lapels, the unnerving way his sharp eyes so easily fixed onto Kylo’s own, even through the mask.  
Laying in bed, hours later, he bristled at the memory of how Hux had spoken to him. His scornful tone, his knowing, too-intense gaze. Hux had no right to speak to him like that. To look at him like that.   
Kylo couldn’t get it out of his mind. Even as he tried to concentrate on something—anything—else, he found that he was holding his cock.  
He could not think of the last time he’d wanted this, or the last time he’d even thought about it. He shuddered and breathed out sharply at the first stroke, half-surprised at how hard he already was.  
Still the memory replayed: the sudden nearness of Hux, near enough for Kylo to notice the holographic flash of Hux’s eyes, to memorize the place where the skin of Hux’s neck disappeared beneath his collar. Hux’s voice as he leaned in towards Kylo, the way it made Kylo forget everything else. Hux’s cologne, rich and dark, and underneath it the lingering breath of cigarette smoke clinging to his clothes. Hux—  
“Hux,” Kylo breathed, his voice cracking as he finished in a sudden, blinding rush. He was left with the harsh sound of his own panting in his ears and cum dripping between his fingers onto the sheets.

***

The next morning Kylo woke early. Unsettled by a lingering sense of shame, he showered and dressed. Today’s council meeting wouldn’t start for several hours, but except for pacing in his quarters, Kylo had nowhere else to go. He swept out of his room and headed down a labyrinth of halls, almost deserted save for him.  
Expecting an empty room, Kylo was startled to find Hux already inside of the conference chamber, seated at the head console with a cup of caf in his hands. Kylo froze in the doorway.  
Hux glanced briefly towards him. “Ren,” he greeted coolly. “You’re rather early.”  
Kylo found himself tongue-tied, fighting the impulse to bolt out the door.   
“The others won’t be here for several hours more,” Hux continued with a slight rise in his brow. “You can come back later.”   
Kylo nodded mutely. Hux regarded him a moment longer and then returned his attention to the console. Without another word, Kylo retreated from the room.   
The scheduled time for the meeting came and passed, but Kylo could not make himself return. Not while Hux was there, staring through him.   
He felt foolish, humiliated that he had been reduced to this state simply by the presence of one man. Kylo had never been impressed by Hux in the past and he had no reason to be now. This was weakness, and Snoke would allow no such thing.   
Kylo returned to his quarters and meditated, sinking himself deep into the Force to purge Hux from his mind. 

***

For several days, Kylo didn’t see Hux, or anyone else. He stayed isolated in his rooms, determined to rid himself of distraction. Finally Snoke had interrupted his seclusion.  
_ I’m waiting, Kylo Ren. Your training continues._  
Kylo extricated himself from the depths of the Force, returning to the tangible world with a sharp exhale. Reluctantly, he left his quarters and started to make his way to the Holochamber.  
He turned a corner and found himself nearly walking into Hux. Startled, he stepped back.  
“Ren, you’ve missed three consecutive briefings,” Hux said sternly. “Leader Snoke will know if you haven’t been keeping up.”  
Kylo could say nothing.  
“What is wrong with you?” Hux said, his features pinched with impatience. “Besides trying to organize the direction of the First Order, I am trying to spare us both the wrath of Snoke. I would think that is something you would like to avoid, but you seem insistent on bringing retribution upon us both.”   
Kylo felt pinned in place by Hux’s stare. He shook his head and then forced himself to take a step around Hux.  
“Ren? Are you even listening to me—?”  
The next moment was a blur. Kylo felt Hux’s hand on his elbow, trying to pull him back. Kylo recoiled, pivoting and catching Hux’s wrist in a crushing grip. “Don’t touch me,” he snarled into Hux’s stunned face.  
Hux quickly recovered from his surprise, his expression turning to annoyance. “The next council meeting is tomorrow,” he said flatly. “Be there, or I will inform Leader Snoke that you have elected to disobey his orders.”   
“Fine,” Kylo snapped. He released Hux and retreated down the hall.


	10. Chapter 10

Ren had reappeared at the next meeting, and didn’t miss another one for some time. The council quickly grew used to Ren’s strange, off-putting presence, and Ren, for his part, returned to following Hux’s directive: silent unless spoken to.  
After several weeks of what Hux had hoped would become a routine, they reached the end of a meeting and Hux dismissed the council as usual. Ren remained in his seat.   
Hux, irritated as he had wished to review the council’s notes alone, asked, “Do you have a question, Ren?”  
He didn’t move, as if he hadn’t heard Hux speak.   
“Ren,” Hux repeated, more sharply. “Since you’re clearly not paying attention, I’ve dismissed the meeting. Do I have to give you instructions for everything?”   
Finally, Ren looked towards him. Quietly, he said, “No.”  
“Then get out,” Hux snapped. “You can perpetuate your uselessness elsewhere.”   
Ren rose slowly. “You think I’m useless,” he said, “and not these endless meetings that you waste my time with?”   
“If the content of these meetings is beyond your comprehension, perhaps you should bring that to the attention of Leader Snoke.”   
“Your only value to Leader Snoke is as a mouthpiece for his commands.”  
Hux was quiet for a moment. Then, he murmured, “I don’t think our Supreme Leader values you any more than myself, really. You’re just quicker to kneel to him. You would rather avoid thinking for yourself, which is why you need me to spell out each and every detail for you.”  
Ren stalked around the table towards Hux, his shoulders set squarely and his hands balled into fists at his sides. “I don’t need you,” he snarled.   
Hux’s mouth curled into a venomous smile. “But you do. As much as you need to hide inside that mask. Otherwise, the council—and Snoke—would see what you really are.”  
A pause. Then Ren took off his mask and haphazardly tossed it onto the table. His dark eyes bored into Hux’s as he closed the distance between them until just inches separated them. Hux gave no ground. “And what am I, General Hux?”   
“A coward.”  
Ren tensed. Hux steeled himself for a blow when Ren kissed him.  
Hux froze. He could not say how long Ren’s lips were on his before Ren broke away. Ren’s eyes were wide and he faltered, starting to step away when Hux grabbed the front of his tunic and pulled him back. Ren’s hands went to Hux’s waist, his touch light and unsure. Hux breathed, “Not here, Ren. Follow me.”  
They reached Hux’s quarters. The door had hardly sealed behind Ren when Hux shoved him against a wall, kissing him again. Hux pushed his tongue past Ren’s lips, tasting him. Ren slipped his hands beneath Hux’s shirt as Hux unfastened the clasp of Ren’s pants.  
Ren was already hard, gasping when Hux’s fingers brushed over him. Hux pressed his lips along Ren’s jawline, then murmured into Ren’s ear, “Get on the bed.”  
Ren obeyed. Hux removed his own shirt, neatly setting it aside. Ren’s hands glided over his skin, pausing at the pair of silver dog tags resting on Hux’s chest. Ren’s fingers strayed towards them, a puzzled look on his face, but Hux caught Ren’s wrists and pinned them to the sheets.  
Hux’s eyes followed the long scar trailing from his forehead over the bridge of his nose to his cheek, breaking off at his defined jaw. It was a ghastly mark, but Hux could not deny his impulse to lean down and kiss where it resumed on Ren’s throat, tracing his lips down the gnarled skin across his collarbone and over his chest.   
He reached Ren’s stomach, where his mouth hovered over Ren’s flush cock. Ren was writhing beneath Hux, his breathing shallow. Hux rose and waited for Ren to meet his eyes. When he finally did, Hux breathed, “Turn over.”  
Ren hesitated briefly, but shifted. Hux retrieved a small vial from his nightstand, then eased off his pants and set them aside. He straddled Ren’s thighs, running a hand over Ren’s muscled back. Ren was radiating desperation, and every place Hux’s newly bare skin brushed against Ren felt like live wire.  
A wordless sound spilled from Hux as he pressed inside of Ren. Ren tensed, his fingers twisting into the sheets. Hux moved slowly, the heat of Ren’s body nearly unbearable. Gradually, Ren became less rigid, his breathing less labored. Hux leaned over Ren’s back to kiss behind his ear as Hux grasped Ren’s cock. Then Ren was beyond himself, a violent shudder racking through him with each pulse of Hux’s hips.  
Ren arched against Hux’s chest, his breath catching in his throat as he gasped, “Hux—”  
Ren came over Hux’s fingers. Hux pressed himself into Ren as far as he could, and suddenly he knew nothing but his own rapid heartbeat and agonizing release. 

***

When Hux returned to the bedroom, he found that Ren had quietly slipped out. The room felt oddly still in his absence. Hux straightened his uniform and went towards the entrance where his greatcoat had been dropped, but found that it had been neatly laid over the back of a chair. He paused, then slipped it back on before heading back to the bridge. 


	11. Chapter 11

Hux was startled by the chime of his door. He couldn’t even remember the last time it had been used; he wasn’t one to have frequent visitors. Before he could open his mouth to request identification, a low, terse voice said, “Hux, it’s me.”  
Ren.  
Hux hadn’t seen a sign of him since he’d left Hux’s quarters. He scowled. “What do you want?”   
A beat of silence passed. Then, there was an unsettling creak of metal. The door seemed to shudder in its frame. It slid open to reveal Ren. His hand dropped to his side and he stepped past the threshold. Weakly, the door limped shut behind him.   
“Well done, Ren, you’ve broken my door,” Hux said, incensed. “Had you waited several more seconds, I would have told you that I am extremely busy and don’t have time to waste bickering with you.”  
Ren kept his distance from Hux, cautiously meeting his glare. “No, I didn’t—”  
“I’m certain you’ve not come here for any productive reason,” Hux snapped, “so stay silent and out of my sight until I am prepared to deal with you.”  
Hux expected a biting response, but instead Ren dipped his head and quietly stepped into Hux’s bedroom. Hux was briefly dumbfounded by Ren’s compliance. After all the years Ren would do nothing but argue with Hux, he now obeyed without question.  
Hux returned to his work. As time passed, he found that his attention was straying. Irritated, he shook himself and refocused his eyes on his datapad. A few more sentences, and again Hux felt something drifting into his thoughts. Not quite sure what he was looking for, Hux tried to trace the intruding thought to find its origin. He was startled when the thought hastily recoiled from him.  
Hux went to the bedroom and found Ren sitting on the edge of the bed. “Are you in my mind?” Hux demanded.  
Ren looked alarmed. “I didn’t think you could sense me.”  
“Well, I can, and it’s extremely distracting.”  
“I wasn’t trying to bother you.”  
“And yet here you are.”  
Ren’s eyes flickered as Hux stepped closer. He tensed as Hux lifted a hand to thread his fingers through Ren’s hair, gently pulling his head back until he was looking up at Hux. Softly, Hux said, “I told you I don’t have time to waste on you.”  
“I’m sorry,” Ren murmured.   
Hux placed his other hand in Ren’s hair and pulled him closer to Hux’s waist. Ren stiffened, and Hux said, “This is what you came for, Ren. Is it not?”  
Ren was quiet. Then he began to fumble with Hux’s belt. Gingerly, he pulled aside the fabric of Hux’s pants. Ren’s breath was warm on Hux’s skin. He glanced up at Hux, hesitating.  
“Do it,” Hux said.  
Another pause, and then Ren brought his mouth to the tip of Hux’s cock. His lips parted around Hux, his tongue pressing up to taste him. Each movement was slow and deliberate.   
“So obedient,” Hux breathed, twisting his fingers in Ren’s thick hair. He pushed forward, deeper into Ren’s mouth. Ren’s hands went to the backs of Hux’s thighs, trembling as Hux’s cock reached his throat. Hux’s fingers curled sharply against Ren’s scalp and he groaned at the wet heat of Ren’s mouth.  
All too quickly, Hux felt the white-hot rush of his climax approach. With difficulty, Hux pulled himself from Ren’s mouth. Ren breathed raggedly, his lips wet and swollen. Hux caught sight of the strained material of Ren’s pants and said, “Lie back.”   
Ren obeyed, shivering as Hux undid Ren’s pants and tossed them aside. He gave a short gasp as Hux took Ren’s cock in his hand. Hux watched Ren’s composure break apart as he stroked Ren’s cock. A whimper escaped him as Hux slid a finger inside of him. Ren’s breath hitched on each individual movement of Hux’s wrist, his back arching as he tried to take more of Hux into him.   
Hux ignored Ren’s hiss of protest when he brought his finger from Ren. He pulled Ren’s legs around his waist as Hux pushed inside of him. Hux leaned down to kiss him, tasting himself on Ren’s mouth. A moment later, Ren let out a stream of curses and his cock twitched, spilling cum onto his stomach. Hux shuddered and finished shortly after.   
Once again, by the time Hux had returned from the washroom, Ren had gone. 

***

Unlike the last time, Ren did not disappear for very long. He was back at Hux’s door within a few days, far less sheepish as he requested to enter Hux’s quarters. Hux had no excuse of work, and indulged himself Ren’s visit.  
When Hux’s mouth touched Ren’s cock, he came almost immediately. Hux took the opportunity to lick all of the cum from Ren until he was begging Hux to stop. Hux was inside of him then, careful not to allow Ren to come again until well after Hux had finished.  
Hux was slow to withdraw from Ren, lingering on top of him as they caught their breath. Very hesitantly, one of Ren’s hands went to Hux’s chest, sliding upwards until his palm rested on Hux’s face. As soon as he met Hux’s eyes, he quickly dropped his hand and averted his gaze as a flush rose on his cheekbones.   
“No need to keep that up,” Hux muttered, sitting up to disentangle himself from Ren.   
“Keep what up?”  
Hux rolled his eyes as he got out of the bed to redress. “Acting like you haven’t done any of this before,” he said. “It isn’t like I’m your first, after all.”  
Ren was silent.   
Hux paused in the middle of fastening a button. “Ren?”  
“What?”  
“You…you have done this before.”  
“Yes,” Ren said shortly.  
Hux stood briefly frozen. Abandoning his shirt half done, he reached over to pull Ren’s shoulder so that Ren faced him.   
“Ren,” Hux said, very slowly, “Tell me that you have been in bed with someone other than me.”  
“What difference does it make?” Ren snapped.  
Hux ran a hand over his face, then fixed Ren with a disbelieving glare. “Up until two weeks ago you were a _ virgin?” _  
Ren shrank back into the pillows. “I don’t see what it matters,” he said stiffly.  
“Ren—” Hux broke off, pinching the bridge of his nose. It all started to make sense: the blushing, the fumbling hands. Hux had simply brushed it off as nervousness and thought little of it. “Why would you let me—”  
“I don’t know,” Ren said bitingly. He stood from the bed and redressed himself in silence. Hux felt irritation roiling off Ren’s mind, as well as a piercing twinge of embarrassment. He stepped around Hux, swiftly exiting Hux’s quarters and leaving Hux in silence.


	12. Chapter 12

After the last time, Ren had abruptly stopped showing up at Hux’s quarters. He seemed to go out of his way to avoid Hux, staying well clear of the bridge any time Hux was on it and never speaking to him unless he absolutely had to. Hux found himself annoyed by the obviousness of Ren’s evasions, but he assumed that Ren’s usual surly attitude would eventually return and the whole thing, bizarre as it was, would be forgotten. Then, perhaps a week after the last time Ren had been in Hux’s room, something changed.  
The first time it happened, Hux was in an informal meeting in a conference room, going over reports from recent missions. About eight other bridge officers had joined him. They were scattered around a long table, datapads in hands, while a slowly revolving series of diagrams hovered above the tabletop.   
A large window at the front of the room overlooked the long triangular plane of the destroyer’s bow. Ren was facing the window, away from Hux and the rest of the officers. Ostensibly, Ren was supposed to be participating in this meeting—or at least paying attention—although it was obvious he was doing neither.   
Hux was standing at the table, leaning forward as he examined the holo. “Any updates from Atenai, Lieutenant Jamire?”  
Jamire scrolled through his datapad and Hux watched the holo morph to a system map of Atenai. “Still inconclusive,” he said. “Director Hollis reports steady progress from the survey crew, but…”  
Quite abruptly, Hux found his attention drawn away from Jamire, seemingly towards nothing in particular. One moment he was weighing Jamire’s words, considering how the report would affect his meeting with Snoke the following day, and the next he was thinking of nothing at all.  
But it wasn’t quite nothing, Hux realized as he tried to pin down what had so obtrusively interrupted his thoughts. It was something—somewhere—somewhere dark.  
Jamire was looking at him expectantly. “Say again, Lieutenant,” Hux said, with an apologetic glance.  
“The survey crew reports that air-viz scans have been inconclusive because of thick tree cover, sir. Ground teams are moving in now.”  
Hux nodded an affirmation. The fleeting distraction, whatever it was, had vanished, although the idea of it continued to nettle Hux as he listened to reports from the other officers.   
A few minutes later, the distraction crept in again. This time it started at the very outer edges of his thoughts as nothing more than a feeling that couldn’t be placed. Annoyed, Hux tried to brush it off, but it quickly became clear that the feeling was not his to ignore.  
It came into focus as a series of images: The darkened room he’d seen so briefly before reappeared, suddenly recognizable as his own quarters. Hux caught hazy flashes of figures within the room—the curve of a bare shoulder, a bloom of purple bruises on a pale throat. His throat.  
In a revelatory flash, Hux understood. He strode purposefully across the room, and the officer who had been speaking trailed into confused silence in his wake. The eyes of the rest of the room followed Hux as he drew up in front of Ren.  
Turning away from the window, Ren stepped languidly to face Hux and the table of officers behind him.   
“It seems you have something to say to me, Ren,” Hux said. “Would you like to share it?”  
Ren was masked but it didn’t matter; Hux felt the moment of comprehension when it hit him, followed by a violent burst of anger, followed in turn by deliberate, haughty silence. Ren shoved past Hux and stormed out of the room.  
Hux watched him go, allowing the smallest of amused smirks. Before Ren was quite out of earshot, Hux said, “My apologies, Lieutenant Jamire. You were saying?”

***

The second time, Hux was alone in his quarters, steadily burning his way through the contents of his cigarette case while he sifted through a puzzling set of data from the latest intelligence reports. He’d been half-expecting Ren to show up at his door all evening, and in truth, he wouldn’t have minded.  
At some point, hours after Hux had lost track of the time, he noticed it again: the distant feeling of longing, an ache that had been silenced until now, at the end of the day, when it became unavoidable. Gradually, the feeling again took shape as sensation and memory, strangely inverted from Hux’s own memories.  
Hux stilled, tapping his cigarette on the ashtray. He waited until he was sure it really was Ren, and not a trick of his imagination. Then, experimentally, he concentrated on casting his thoughts outward: _Ren._  
A rush of panic, embarrassment. He felt Ren pull violently away from him, and Hux was alone.  
Hux sighed, took another drag on his cigarette, and went back to work.

***

Despite Ren’s continuing efforts to avoid Hux, it was only two days before they ran into each other in a highly trafficked corridor off the bridge. Hux had felt Ren’s eyes lock on his through the maddening obscurity of the mask. They stood in silence for several seconds, only a few paces apart, until Hux raised an eyebrow at him. Immediately, Ren had brushed past him as if Hux were no different than any of the other officers hurrying through the corridor.  
Now, in the quiet of his own room, Hux’s mind strayed back to that brief encounter. He had a strong suspicion that Ren had not forgotten it either. While he sat at his desk, poring through the latest reports routed to his datapad, a part of him was already listening for Ren.  
It didn’t take long. Now that Hux was expecting it, Ren’s presence in his mind was as easy to recognize as if Ren had walked into the room. As soon as he felt it, Hux set his datapad down on the desk and crossed to his bedroom.  
He wasn’t sure if it was because he was paying closer attention this time or because of how long it had been since Ren was in Hux’s quarters, but the feeling of Ren’s lust came through more keenly than it had before. He could tell that Ren’s thoughts towards Hux were still tinged with resentment over what had happened in the conference room. But as Hux let Ren’s mind stray deeper into his own, Hux saw with a certain satisfaction that in some odd way, the humiliation inflicted on Ren had only deepened his need of Hux.  
Ren seemed suddenly to become aware of what was happening. His presence sharpened in Hux’s mind, the connection between them so strong that Hux could hear Ren’s breathing in his ears. As soon as Ren understood that Hux sensed him, he began to retreat into his own mind, the humiliation and resentment flaring anew.   
_ Ren, wait, _ Hux called out to him.  
Unsure of himself, Ren halted.  
Hux was intrigued. He’d heard Snoke’s voice in his mind before, but he’d never spoken back to anyone this way. _ You can hear me_.   
_ Yes. _ Ren sounded cautious.  
Hux’s mouth twitched into a smile. _ Good. In that case... _ He undid the clasp of his pants, slid them down to his hips and took his cock in his hand. _ Don’t you want to stay? _   
He felt the echo of Ren’s reaction, the dawning realization sending Ren’s heart to his throat.  
_Well?_  
_ Yes, _ Ren answered softly.   
Hux leaned back against the headboard and started to stroke himself, slowly at first, enjoying Ren’s rapt attention on each movement. Without being able to see Ren, Hux wasn’t exactly sure how he knew when Ren’s hand started to stray towards his own waist.  
_ No, _ Hux said sharply. _ If I wanted you to come, I’d have you here and make you come myself. _   
Ren’s impatience washed over Hux in a sudden, convulsive rush, but he obeyed.  
Letting out a short breath, Hux arched slightly off the bed, his hand moving more rapidly. He let his eyes fall shut, his other hand curling into the sheets. _Can you feel how close I am?_  
Ren didn’t answer. Hux had not expected him to, but he was sure Ren could feel it, just as clearly as Hux could feel how badly Ren wanted him to finish.  
In a low murmur, Ren said, _Open your eyes._  
Hux did, and immediately felt the pleasure of seeing his hard cock in his hand sink into Ren’s brain like a nicotine buzz.   
Hux pushed his shirt up out of the way. _Tell me why I’m making you watch this, Ren._  
_Because I don’t deserve to have you fuck me._  
Hux was hit with a staggering surge of feeling—Ren’s willingness, his overwhelming need, to make himself less than Hux. It pushed Hux over the edge. With a low moan he would have never granted to Ren, he came with his cock against his stomach, spilling over his bare chest.  
The spasm of blind pleasure flooded both of their minds, and for several moments Hux was too lost to understand or care whether the bliss pounding through his veins belonged to him or to Ren.  
After a few shaking breaths he recovered, relaxing his grip with a final short exhale. _Next time, just come find me after hours instead of distracting me in meetings. I’ll be more than happy to remind you of your place._  
Without waiting for an answer, he closed his mind off from Ren as best as he knew how. Either Hux succeeded in pushing him out or Ren acquiesced and withdrew. Whichever it was, the next moment Hux found himself alone again. 


	13. Chapter 13

The airfield was much calmer than most of the time Finn had spent there. A few technicians and mechanics were scattered around the hangar, most with datapads or repair kits under their arms. The grounds were filled with their relaxed chatter, punctuated by the distant drone of engines from the handful of ships running drills above the base. Poe was slightly ahead of Finn, walking backwards and explaining the various models of X-wings as they passed them.  
When they finally reached Black Leader, with its unmissable orange and black paint, Poe led Finn underneath the belly of the ship. A panel had been pried off, exposing the engine and its complex system of pistons and valves. Poe reached up into the exposed compartment. “This,” he said, and rapped his knuckles on a piece of metal tubing that was pockmarked with corrosion, “is what’s been giving me so much trouble. Reactant agitator injector. Hasn’t been the same since Jultan. Hopefully we can just replace this piece and leave the power converter alone, because those converters are _ not _ easy to come by these days…”  
Finn settled onto the lowest rung of a utility ladder that had been left lying under the X-wing, watching as Poe indicated the components of the X-wing’s engine. As the most inexperienced pilot on the base, he’d been eager to learn more about the ships and how they worked. But as Poe spoke, Finn found his attention drifting elsewhere. His eyes were drawn out to the airfield, to the X-wings darting overhead and the empty sky behind them.  
It didn’t take Poe long to notice he’d lost his audience. He trailed off, a frown creasing his brow. “Everything okay?”  
Chagrined, Finn glanced up at him. “Yeah. Sorry. Just...thinking.”  
“What’s wrong?”  
Finn shook his head. “Do you think Rey made it?” he asked quietly. “How do we know if she even found Skywalker?”  
“Of course she did.” Poe gave a reassuring smile. “She would have come straight back here if she hadn’t found him, and she’s been gone for months.”  
“But what if she didn’t? What if the map was wrong, or if it was a trap—”  
“Hey.” Poe ducked out of the engine compartment and dropped to a crouch so that he was level with Finn. He placed a hand on Finn’s shoulder. “You gotta trust her, okay? She’s training to be a Jedi. She’ll be back as soon as she’s ready to fight.”  
Finn looked away, still uneasy. “I should have gone with her.”  
Poe squeezed his shoulder. “Remember what General Organa told us? Our job is to be prepared for when Rey and Luke come back. Jedi or not, Rey can’t fight the whole First Order alone. She’s gonna need some ass-kicking pilots to help her.”  
Finn gave a half-hearted nod. Poe flashed a crooked grin and set his other hand on Finn’s knee. “Besides, it’s not the worst thing being here at the base, is it? You’re getting free lessons from the most famous pilot in the galaxy.”  
Finn rolled his eyes. “You think you’re the _ most famous _ pilot in the galaxy?”  
“Are you kidding? I’m on all the First Order fighter dispatches. Target number one. Who knows—maybe if you keep practicing, you can be number two.”  
Against his will, Finn found himself smiling slightly. Before he could reply, seemingly out of nowhere, BB-8 rolled into view. He stopped in his tracks as he took stock of the scene between Finn and Poe, then beeped something admonishingly.  
“Hey, we _ are _ working on the ship,” Poe protested.  
BB-8 gave a long, rising chirrup that sounded extremely skeptical. Poe rolled his eyes. “All right, all right.” He gave Finn’s shoulder one last squeeze and stood. “BB-8, you wanna stand around yelling at us or you wanna help? Hop in there and keep an eye on the readings while I test this…”  
Finn remained perched on the utility ladder’s rung and dutifully followed along with Poe’s explanations as he rattled around in the open compartment of the ship. But even as Finn listened, he couldn’t quite shake the worry that something had gone wrong and they just didn’t know it yet. 


	14. Chapter 14

That night, Luke found Rey sitting by a fire outside her cabin. He sat down on a rock opposite her and watched her silently for a few moments. “You did well today,” he said.  
A small smile touched Rey’s face and she gave a nod of thanks. Neither of them spoke as Rey absently tended the fire, listening to the constant sound of the waves in the distance.  
“Master Skywalker,” she said finally. “May I ask you something?”  
He nodded without looking up from the fire. She went on cautiously, “Your nephew. Kylo Ren. He was one of your students.”  
“Yes,” Luke said gruffly.  
“What happened to him?” Rey studied Luke as she spoke. “I mean, why did he…”  
He gave her a stony look. “I agreed to teach you to be a Jedi,” he said. “Not to tell stories about Kylo Ren.”  
“But I need to know why,” Rey pressed. “How could he have killed all those students?”  
“Enough,” Luke snarled. “You are not to speak of Kylo Ren while you are here.”  
“Not to speak of him?” she echoed disbelievingly. “But—how can we just ignore him? He’s out there with the First Order right now—”  
“And you are here, on Ahch-To, learning to separate yourself from the trivial matters of others so that you can follow the Jedi path. Or at least I thought that’s what you wanted.”  
Rey stared at him. “I want to learn to become a Jedi so that I can help Leia,” she said firmly. “So I can go back and help the Resistance defeat the First Order.”  
He sneered at her. “Spoken like a scavenger,” he said coldly. “You’ll never make it far with your training if you can’t learn to distance yourself from Rey of Jakku.”  
“Then what’s the point of any of this? Why learn to use the Force at all if it’s not to fight the Dark Side? To help win the war?”  
“The point,” Luke growled, “is to protect Ahch-To and the wisdom of the ancient Jedi before it is lost forever.”  
“So Ahch-To can be the last place in the galaxy that’s safe from the Order? Your sister is doing everything she can to make sure the Order doesn’t win. How can you just sit here and pretend it isn’t happening?”  
“I don’t have a place in the war,” Luke said. “It’s not my job to worry about any of that. Not anymore.”  
Rey was silent for a few moments. Finally, she demanded, “Why did you agree to teach me?”   
“Because you have so much potential,” Luke answered. “Because your strength in the Force is incredible. You’ll be a great Jedi, if you let me teach you.”  
“But—why?” Rey tried to stop her voice from shaking. Tears had started to prick at her eyes and she stubbornly blinked them away. “Why would you want me to be the next great Jedi? Why should I want that?”  
“Because it’s what you’re meant to be,” he said simply. “That’s why you have this power, Rey. This is what the Force chose you for.”   
Rey scrambled to her feet. Luke was saying something but she couldn’t hear him over the pounding of blood in her ears. Without stopping to think about where she was going, she descended the stone steps of the cliff and half-ran, half-stumbled all the way to the black stone beach.   
The wind was biting and strong here, the waves taller than her in the distance before they crashed on the beach. The water pushed up the gravel to her feet, and she gasped at the frigid water as it soaked through her boots and then splashed up against her shins. Taking a deep breath, she set her shoulders and walked until she was up to her knees in deathly cold water.   
She pulled the holocron from her pocket, holding it out in front of her. “Show me something,” she said, her own voice barely audible over the tumultuous waves. “Anything. Tell me why I have the Force. Tell me what I’m supposed to do.”  
The holocron remained silent and still. Rey closed her eyes and breathed evenly, concentrating on the holocron until her mind went quiet and the thundering ocean became only a dull rumble. She reached out to the holocron once more. _ Please. Just tell me who I am_.  
Rey listened. She waited until her body was numb from cold.   
Nothing.  
She dropped her arm, staring at the churning water. It was no use. She walked back to the shore, suddenly aware that she was freezing down to her bones. Very slowly, she made her way back up the steps to her hut at the top of the cliff.  
Once inside, Rey let the holocron fall to the ground beside the door, and it landed haphazardly on its side. She stepped out of her soaking clothes and slid gratefully between the warm blankets. She found herself exhausted as soon as she was in bed, and she quickly drifted off to sleep.   
Unnoticed, a faint blue glow began to flicker within the golden matrices of the holocron.


	15. Chapter 15

The routine had developed quickly. Ren, apparently cured of his embarrassment after the night that he’d drifted into Hux’s mind, appeared at Hux’s door a few times a week. Hux was never any gentler than he had been the first time, which seemed to come as a relief to Ren.  
Some weeks after Ren had started to turn up at Hux’s quarters again, he’d caught Hux in an especially poor mood. Hux must have bitten Ren’s lip harder than usual—he hadn’t noticed at the time, and only realized it while Ren was lying underneath him, still catching his breath, and Hux saw the thin line of blood at the corner of Ren’s mouth.   
When Hux returned from the washroom, he found Ren sitting up in bed. His eyes were shut and his hand raised, hovering just above his mouth. There was a very faint blue glow emanating from Ren’s fingertips.  
Hux froze at the foot of the bed. He stared at Ren and said suspiciously, “What is that? What are you doing?”  
With his eyes still closed, he murmured, “Healing.”  
“What?”  
“I’m healing myself.”  
Hux watched as the split in Ren’s lip slowly knitted itself together again, the wound steadily disappearing under his hand. “How?”  
Ren’s pinched brow twitched. “You’re distracting me.”  
Offended, Hux started to argue, but cut off as a slight tremor went through Ren’s hand. The next moment, the glow faded away and the injury was gone. The only evidence of it was a tiny smudge of blood left on Ren’s mouth.  
Ren opened his eyes and caught Hux staring at him. He touched two fingers to his lip and, apparently satisfied, dropped his hand back to the bed.  
“Have you always been able to do that?”  
He gave a disinterested shrug.  
Hux regarded him for another beat, then turned away and picked up his datapad from the table beside the bed. After skimming through the last of his messages, he set it aside and glanced over his shoulder at Ren, who was watching Hux absently.   
“Is there something else you needed?” Hux asked.  
Ren dropped his eyes. He pulled himself off the bed, gathered his clothes from the floor, and slowly redressed. He left like he always did: without a word of goodbye and with the unspoken understanding that he’d be back before long.

***

It was already late when Hux felt rather than heard Ren’s presence outside the door to his quarters. Hux was at his desk, half undressed and sipping from a cut-glass tumbler of Savareen. He hit the button to admit Ren, who stepped inside wordlessly.  
“Ren,” Hux said coolly, and then, deciding on a whim to be difficult, asked, “Can I help you with something?”  
Ren cast him a brief scowl. “What are you doing?” he said, obviously puzzled by the absence of Hux’s datapad, which so rarely left his hand.  
“Well, I was enjoying a drink.” Hux watched him for several moments. “Would you like one?”  
“One what?”  
“A drink.”  
Ren did not answer immediately, regarding the glass in Hux’s hand.  
“You don’t drink much, do you?”  
He hovered at the edge of Hux’s desk. “No,” he said.  
Hux cocked his head. He started to reach for the Savareen, intending to pour another glass, but halted. He crossed the room to a large armoire with black-tinted glass panels. The shelves lit from within as Hux neared it, and the soft light refracted through dozens of bottles and decanters. He pressed along the hinge and the glass panel slid away. For several moments he stood in front of the armoire, contemplating, before selecting a bottle containing a milky, pale green liquid. He took another tumbler from the shelf and brought them both back to his desk.   
He held the bottle up to the light. “This was a gift,” he said, turning it slowly. Silver currents rose in the pale liquid as it moved, twining together and dissolving again. “It’s too sweet for me. But you’ll like it.”  
“What are you drinking?”  
“Savareen. Here.” He handed Ren his own glass. Ren took a hesitant sip and sputtered. Hux managed to hand the glass of the green liquid over to him with only a minimal smirk.   
Somewhat sheepishly, Ren exchanged Hux’s glass of Savareen for the one Hux proffered to him. “What is this one?”  
“Ideal for amateurs,” Hux muttered to the bottle he was in the process of recorking.  
“What?”  
“It’s called Daranu.”  
Ren raised the glass to his lips and inhaled experimentally. He sipped the Daranu, then took a long pull.  
“That’s much better,” Ren said.  
Hux watched him. “Yes,” he said briefly, and then took a long pull of his own brandy.  
It wasn’t long before they were both several drinks in, and Ren was insistently pulling at Hux’s clothes and trying to kiss him all at once.   
Suddenly and unexpectedly, Hux either fell or Ren pulled him out of the chair. Ren ended up on his back on the floor with Hux straddling his waist.  
Hux slipped his shirt off and then impatiently removed Ren’s belt, tunic, and undershirt, tossing them aside. He traced his fingertips across Ren’s bare skin, watching the rise and fall of his chest grow faster. He dropped his mouth to Ren’s neck and dragged his lips slowly along each crevice and ridge of muscle. After only a few seconds Ren was writhing, his hands desperately tugging at the clasp of Hux’s pants.   
Hux kissed him, pressing his palm down on Ren’s stomach. He pulled away just far enough to murmur against Ren’s mouth, “You know, I don’t mind that I’m the only one who’s had you.”  
“The only one who’s…?”  
“Who’s fucked you, yes. No need to be delicate, I suppose.”   
Ren went even more pink. Hux kissed behind his ear and said, “That’s just why. You’re so surprised by everything.”  
Hux pulled Ren up on the bed, landing on his back underneath him. “Ren,” Hux breathed. “I want you inside me.”  
Ren froze, his eyes widening. “But I’ve never—”  
“I know.” Hux pulled Ren’s head down to kiss him again, then started to tug Ren’s pants off of his hips. Ren moved stiffly, unsure of himself.   
Hux determinedly ignored Ren’s eyes on him as Ren slowly pressed inside of him. Hux winced as Ren moved at an odd angle. Alarmed at his reaction, Ren jerked backwards.  
“Stop,” Hux hissed. He lifted a hand to cup the side of Ren’s face. “Listen.”  
Ren, eyes wide, leaned into Hux’s palm. Hux felt Ren’s presence brush lightly against his mind. Hux closed his eyes, concentrating to bring one memory to the forefront of his thoughts. Ren’s breath hitched as he watched and felt as Hux had.  
_ Hands on his hips and on his chest. Hux isn’t quite sure what the man’s name is. He doesn’t care. The stranger says something but Hux isn’t listening. He pulls Hux’s legs around his waist. Hux savors how it hurts._  
Ren’s fingers curled sharply into Hux’s thighs, abruptly bringing him out of the memory. A shudder ran through Ren and, when his eyes opened, Hux saw that his panic had been replaced by something darker.   
“No,” Ren snarled.  
“Ren?”   
“You’re mine.”  
Hux’s worry was forgotten as Ren pushed inside of him. Ren’s hands went to Hux’s hips and pulled him closer, deeper. Hux groaned, his eyes fluttering shut as he lost himself in the feeling.  
Ren buried his face into the crook of Hux’s neck, his breath hot as he panted Hux’s name. Hux pressed his mouth against Ren’s ear and gave a breathless moan.  
They finished together, shaking and gasping. Ren wrapped his arms around Hux and Hux, unthinkingly, did the same to him.

***

They fell asleep that way, much to Hux’s annoyance the following morning. Hux woke first, and managed to extricate himself from Ren without waking him.  
Standing in front of the mirror above his washroom sink, he started to splash a handful of cold water on his face but froze when he caught sight of himself. A vivid purple-black bruise was prominently visible halfway up his neck.  
He swore shortly and walked back out to the bedroom. Ren stirred faintly at the sound of his steps but it took three iterations of “Ren” before he finally opened his eyes.  
“Get up,” Hux said.  
He mumbled something unintelligible and tried to turn over.  
Hux caught his shoulder and pulled so that Ren was facing him. “I have to get to a meeting,” Hux said.  
“Then go,” Ren said, miserably. “Turn off the lights when you leave.”  
“I can’t go like this.” Hux indicated the violent bloom of purple on his neck.  
Ren tried feebly to pull himself out of Hux’s grasp. “So what?”  
Hux braced himself and said, “I need you to heal it.”  
Ren groaned and started to turn away again.  
“Please,” Hux said, hating himself.  
He looked up at Hux through one slitted eye. “I can’t.”  
“Why not?”  
“Because I can’t. Leave me alone.”  
Hux scrubbed a hand across his face, unable to entirely believe that his life had come to this. Then, very briskly, he said, “I am going to change clothes. When I come back, you will heal this bruise so I can go to my meeting. Is that understood?”  
After a brief pause, Ren nodded mutely, wincing.  
Hux sighed, stood up, and went to pull a fresh set of clothes from his closet.   
He came back a few minutes later, his clothes and hair neatly arranged, looking exactly as he normally did if not for the bite mark on his neck. When he returned to the bedroom, Ren was sitting up, which Hux took to be an encouraging sign.  
“Ready?” Hux said coolly, and without waiting for an answer sat down on the bed next to him. Ren nodded sleepily and raised his hand.  
It wasn’t until Hux felt a prickling, frigid sensation on the side of his neck that he realized this may not have been an entirely sound plan. A sharp twinge of pain shot across his shoulder, where similar bruises were scattered. “I don’t need you to heal those,” Hux said, irate. “Just the one people can see.”  
Ren frowned. “That’s not exactly how it works.”  
“Well, make it work.”  
“Right, because this is obviously what the skill is intended for,” Ren snapped.   
Hux regretted not leaving before Ren woke up.   
For several moments, Ren was silent, still scowling. When his expression cleared, he raised his hand again. “Relax,” he murmured.   
Not in a position to argue, Hux closed his eyes and made a reasonable effort to comply.  
The alien but not entirely unpleasant feeling of something cold congealing on his neck resumed. Hux kept his eyes shut, waiting for the pain that would follow the cold. It wasn’t as bad as he expected, and when he opened his eyes, Ren looked moderately pleased with himself. Still, he was even paler than before, the dark circles beneath his eyes standing out clearly on his skin.   
Hux stood from the bed. He considered telling Ren to go back to his own quarters while Hux was gone, but it seemed like a null argument. Instead he just said, “Go back to sleep, Ren,” and kissed him briefly. He adjusted his coat and left.


	16. Chapter 16

Leia had not planned to remain on Coruscant much longer, feeling anxious at having been away from the Resistance for so long. Besides that, it was more than clear that her presence was thinly tolerated by the Senate.  
Now, Senator Sindian was working to eradicate the Resistance altogether. By threatening Arkanian secession, she held the entirety of the Senate in her palm. Chiron and the other leaders of the Core Worlds would be desperate to maintain the integrity of the New Republic government. Sindian had trapped Leia between causing the dissolution of the Senate and giving up the Resistance.  
Leia entered the Senate chamber earlier than Chiron had requested. She found him at the podium, reviewing his notes. He startled at the sound of her approach.  
“Leia,” he chirped. “What are you doing here already?”  
“I wanted to talk to you,” Leia responded. “Just us. Is Sindian still threatening Arkanian secession?”  
“Unfortunately, yes. This meeting will hopefully put an end to the discussion.”  
“By giving Sindian what she wants?” Leia questioned lightly.   
Chiron shifted uncomfortably. “Leia, you know that my interests must remain aligned with the Senate’s. Secession of any planet with as much influence as Arkanis would be the end of the New Republic. I must do everything within my power to ensure that does not happen. Senator Sindian is simply trying to ensure the protection of her world.”  
Leia abstained from rolling her eyes. Lowering her voice, she said, “You and I both know that Sindian can’t be trusted. Arkanis has roots in the Empire. Their loyalties have been questionable ever since.”  
Chiron frowned. “Such accusations have no place in this Senate.”  
Leia regarded him steadily. “I’m just telling you to be careful. Remember that I left the Senate _ because _ of Sindian. She turned everyone against me and she’ll do the same to you.”   
Chiron’s answer was not immediate. “I remember,” he said gruffly. “But I cannot prevent the vote to ground the Resistance from reaching the Senate floor. Sindian has put forth that she will suspend talks of seceding if Resistance operations are officially terminated. My vote must be towards preserving unity within this Republic.”  
“Grounding the Resistance is a mistake, Chiron,” Leia said bluntly. “I hope you understand what you’re doing.”  
“I don’t want to make an enemy of the Resistance, Leia, you must believe me,” Chiron implored her. He hesitated. “Admiral Divo would rather I arrest you and your followers.”  
“I’m sure he would.”  
“But I won’t see you made into a criminal.”  
“I appreciate that, Chiron,” Leia replied, “but what’s more important is that we all stand against the First Order together. Right now, what Admiral Divo and Sindian are doing, driving everyone apart like this, is exactly what the Order is hoping for. They want the Senate broken and weak. Then the Core Worlds are as good as theirs.”  
Tiredly, Chiron said, “I am doing what I can.”  
Leia was about to respond when a projection droid passed over them and announced that the session would soon begin. She glanced upwards through the hall as senators from across the galaxy filed in, many casting her wary glances. On the lowest level, Leia caught sight of Sindian entering. Their eyes met and for a moment, Leia saw surprise cross Sindian’s face before she could mask it. Sindian’s expression steeled, and then she turned away.  
“Whatever happens today, I hope that we can remain friends,” Chiron continued, casting her an apologetic glance.   
Leia answered quietly, “I hope so too.”

***

Chiron took the podium and called the session to order. Leia glanced around as he spoke and noticed that even more representatives of the smaller worlds were absent, compared to only a few days before. The First Order was moving faster. Soon they would have majority control of the New Republic and demand the surrender of the Core Worlds, if they even bothered to be so diplomatic.  
Chiron began to call upon the representatives to cast their votes. Old allies of Leia’s that had known her as the Princess of Alderaan now turned against her one by one as they elected to condemn the Resistance.   
The last planet to vote was Coruscant. The projection droid returned to Chiron as a murmur went through the chamber. He was silent for a moment, his head bowed.   
Leia wondered if he had been secretly hoping that the decision would not be unanimous, or at least that the motion would meet with enough disagreement to warrant a delay of the vote. Leia knew as soon as the vote went to the floor what the outcome would be, but it seemed that Chiron was not so prepared.   
When he spoke, his voice was without its usual conviction. “Ultimately, my duties lie with this Republic. I have worked to find compromise so that we do not forget our debts owed to the heroes of the Resistance. However, it is clear that the New Republic must stand as a unified front to face the threat of the First Order.” He paused, drawing a deep breath. “Therefore, Coruscant votes to ground the Resistance. With my vote, this Senate has decided that the Resistance must suspend all military operations indefinitely.”  
Sindian rose. “The Arkanian system remains a part of the New Republic, and unity is preserved.”   
A wave of applause surged throughout the chamber. Leia became deaf to it, gazing at the faces up and down the hall cheering for the end of the Resistance. They had given Sindian what she wanted this time, but what about the next? A fissure had already formed between Arkanis and the Core. Soon it would begin to break apart again, and they would not have Leia to blame any longer.   
Chiron’s voice jarred Leia from her thoughts. She found Chiron, as well as the rest of the chamber, looking at her and waiting for a response.   
“General Organa,” Chiron repeated, “is this understood?”  
“Yes,” Leia responded, hollowly. “As General of the Resistance, I acknowledge the consequences of failure to comply. The Resistance will hereby cease all military action and operations.” 

***

Leia exited the Senate chamber as soon as she could. She left the massive building behind, walking swiftly as she made her way back to her shuttle.  
“Leia,” a voice called. Chiron.  
She hesitated, then stopped, but did not turn to face him.   
Chiron was panting as he caught up to her. “I’m sorry for all of that. Truly, I am,” he said as soon as he regained his breath. “I did all that I could.”  
Softly, Leia said, “I know.”  
“You must promise me that you will not fight this. I truly don’t want to see you or your followers imprisoned, but now Admiral Divo will be able to pursue the Resistance without my intervention. The rest may have forgotten, but I know that you have always had pure intentions for this Republic and that we all owe our lives to you.”   
Finally, Leia turned around. With a sad smile, she offered her hand to him. Chiron took it and she said, “You’re a loyal friend, Senator. I won’t forget everything you’ve done for me.”  
Chiron squeezed her hand. “Be safe, General Organa,” he murmured.  
Leia nodded and slipped her hand from his. “Goodbye, Chiron,” she said, and turned her back on the Senate for the last time.


	17. Chapter 17

Sharp, echoing footsteps. Frigid air mixed with an occasional sweltering burst of steam rising from below.  
His presence is nearby. He must be found and stopped. Failure is not an option.  
_ Ben.  
_ That voice. Foolish, brash. Familiar._ Han Solo.  
__ Take off that mask. You don’t need it.  
__ What do you think you’ll see if I do?  
__ The face of my son.  
_ He approaches. Violent, unpredictable crosswinds threaten to sway them off of the narrow walkway. _When he gets what he wants, he’ll crush you. You know it’s true.  
_ Regret crumbles into doubt. Weakness. _Will you help me?  
__ Anything,_ he says. He places his hand on the hilt of the saber, held between them.  
Anything.  
The crackling plasma thrusts through his chest with ease. Broken screams ring through the cavernous chamber. _Thank you.  
_ His hand, coarse but gentle. Behind the pain in his eyes, there is sadness. Despair. Love.   
The Light.   
His presence fades. He falls. It is over. It should be over.   
Something is wrong. For one crushing moment it’s all desperately, irreparably wrong. _No. _The Supreme Leader would not lie—   
Sudden, crippling, excruciating pain. Blood soaks through thick cloth and armor within seconds. The pain is relentless, agonizing. Can’t speak, can’t move, can’t think, can’t breathe—   
_Ben._

Hux’s eyes flew open and he sat bolt upright. His breath came in short, useless gasps. Throwing off the bedding, he staggered to the washroom caught himself on the sink with trembling hands. An echo of the pain shot through him, and he instinctively grabbed his side. He drew his hand back slowly, as soon as he could move, expecting to see his fingers glistening with blood.  
There was no wound. Hux’s eyes flickered to the mirror. He saw himself, pale and sickly, covered in a cold sweat.   
His first clear thought was that this had not been just a dream. It was a memory—Ren’s memory. He was certain of it.  
It was no longer unusual for Hux to catch flashes of Ren’s thoughts, most often when they were in a room together but sometimes even when they were apart. He’d grown accustomed to that, just as he’d grown accustomed to speaking with Ren in his mind, which had quickly come to feel as natural as speaking out loud. But there had never been anything like this.   
He thought back to the end of the dream, wincing as he remembered the staggering pain that had pierced through his side. He realized that he recognized the wound: he’d seen it firsthand when he helped Ren, all but unconscious, into the escape shuttle as Starkiller Base collapsed around them.   
Hux turned on the sink, cupped his hands beneath the spout, and splashed ice-cold water on his face. He stared at himself in the mirror, drawing slow breaths until his heartbeat returned to normal. When he finally stepped back out to his bedroom, he picked up his datapad just in time to see a message flash across the screen about a report from the New Republic Senate.

***

“Arkanis has already threatened secession. How long until we go after them?” Rhys demanded. “Once we have Arkanis, we’ll have a clear path to the Core Worlds.”  
“Threatening secession is not the same as secession, Admiral,” Hux said wearily. “As it stands, the New Republic presents a more unified front than it has since before the destruction of Hosnia.”  
“That’s why we should be going after the Resistance,” Commander Loque growled. “They’re defenseless. Once we locate them, they won’t be able to fight back.”  
“But we would have to find them first,” Tebessa cautioned. “Even if they are honoring the demilitarization order, that will only make them more difficult to track down.”  
“Precisely,” Hux said. “We don’t have the resources to stop and comb the galaxy for the Resistance right now.”  
“Why should we bother with the Resistance at all?” Rhys shook his head. “As far as I’m concerned, the Senate took care of them for us. Now that they’ve been muzzled by the New Republic, they’re as good as dead.”  
Hux looked back at Rhys coolly. “Even if the Resistance is Leia Organa alone, it is still a threat to us.”  
“They have no choice but to end their military operations. The New Republic would sooner shoot them down than keep letting them run amok.”   
“They will obey the grounding order only until we give them a reason not to,” Hux said, his voice level. “If we go after them directly, we force them to retaliate. We will let the Senate keep them in line for now, and deal with them ourselves when the time is right.”  
Rhys turned to Ren. “What about you lot?” he said gruffly. “You and your Knights. Surely you could handle the Resistance. At least Organa.”  
Hux tempered a sigh as he watched Ren turn his head, very slowly, towards Rhys. When Ren spoke, his voice was low and threatening. “The Knights of Ren don’t exist to do the bidding of your committee,” he murmured. “If that’s the idea General Hux has given you, I’m afraid he’s mistaken.”  
Rhys quirked a brow. “The interests of the Ren must align with those of the Order. You and General Hux both serve Leader Snoke, do you not?”  
“I serve the Supreme Leader, in that I’m useful to him. Hux takes instructions.”  
“Enough,” Hux said coldly. “Ren, you are only in these meetings by mandate of Leader Snoke so that you can have an inkling of what’s going on in the First Order. You’re not here to start petty arguments.”  
“I remember Leader Snoke saying I was here to keep a closer eye on you after the disaster at Starkiller.”  
“A disaster caused by you,” Hux snapped, “and your fixation on foolish squabbles and personal melodramas in the middle of a war.”  
“How convenient that you’re always so quick to blame Starkiller on me, every chance you get,” Ren snarled. “Starkiller was entrusted to you, and it was lost as soon as it was under your command. Do you think all your officers, all those family friends of your father’s—do you think they remembered how he told them you’d always be a failure? I’m sure they remember now.”  
The room was left in ringing silence. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on Hux. He sat very still, staring at Ren.  
“Why is it that you’re so eager to stay away from the Resistance, Ren?” he asked quietly. “Are you afraid that Snoke will give you another little errand like he did with your father? Is that why you’ve been so determined to make a nuisance of yourself at this meeting—because you couldn’t stand to hear us plan to kill your mother? After all, you _ loved _ your filthy smuggler father, and you’ve regretted killing him since the moment you did it—”  
The table shattered, a semicircle of fissures emanating outward from where Ren sat. The atmosphere in the room was suddenly electrified. Hux found the skin on the back of his neck prickling unpleasantly.   
Ren hadn’t moved. “Out,” he breathed.  
No one moved for several moments. Rhys was the first to recover, protesting, “We’ve not made any progress on—”  
Ren shot to his feet, slamming his fist down on the table. The two people nearest him flinched. “Get out. All of you.”  
The eyes of the room darted nervously between Hux and Ren. Without looking away from him, Hux gave a sharp nod. The council members stood and began to file out the door, casting lingering glances between the two of them.   
As the door slid shut, Ren removed his mask and dropped it on the table, the broken glass crunching beneath it. “What did you see?” he hissed. He rounded the table and stepped towards Hux.  
“You’re a coward,” Hux bit out. “Digging through my memories for something you thought you could use against me. You’re _ nothing _ without your mind tricks. Nothing but the son of a traitor and a thief—”   
Ren’s hand shot forward, stopping just short of Hux’s temple. His presence snaked through Hux’s mind before he could react, leaving a trail of searing pain through Hux’s thoughts.  
“Get out of my mind,” Hux gasped.  
Ren’s hand flared open and Hux’s back slammed into the nearest wall. With Hux’s focus lost, Ren rushed past his defenses and drew on his memories. The nightmare from only a few hours earlier began to replay in vivid, excruciating detail.  
Ren recoiled. “How—how did you see this?”  
Hux fought to remove Ren from his mind, struggling against the intense pain of the dream as it flooded his senses. “It was not my doing.”  
Debilitating amounts of pressure exuded from Ren as he went deeper and deeper into Hux’s mind. His mouth twitched into a snarl as he spoke. “You will forget everything you’ve seen.”  
An icy sensation pricked at the backs of Hux’s eyes and shot through his veins like electricity. Hux realized, dimly, that Ren was trying to erase the dream from Hux’s memory. He redoubled his efforts to cast Ren from his mind. This time, he replayed the dream of his own accord, focusing on the paralyzing fear and the deep, unrelenting regret.  
Suddenly, the pressure disappeared. Hux opened his eyes to see Ren stumbling backwards, a hand to his temple. “Stop,” he breathed, an unfamiliar shaking in his voice.  
_Enough of this._  
Hux didn’t have time to be surprised that his idea had worked. Snoke’s voice, clear and cold, echoed in Hux’s mind. He jolted at the feeling of Snoke’s intrusive presence.   
_Come to me at once. Both of you._  
Ren shot one last hate-filled glance at Hux, then stepped around the table to retrieve his mask. He pulled it on and swept out of the room without another word.  
Hux slowly pulled himself off the wall. He stood in the empty conference room for several moments, catching his breath. He smoothed back his hair and straightened his coat, then stepped out into the hall and followed Ren to the Holochamber.

***

When Hux arrived, he found Ren already there, a silhouette of black against the faint gray glow of Snoke’s looming projection. Ren was speaking but Snoke cut him off with an impatient wave of his hand. As Hux reached the raised platform to stand beside Ren, Snoke’s shadowed gaze fell to Hux. “What is the meaning of this?”  
He cast a quick glance at Ren beside him. “Ren was once again sabotaging the operations of the war council.”  
“I ask for your forgiveness, Supreme Leader,” said Ren. “I allowed myself to be affected by the insolence of General Hux.”  
Snoke rose and his imposing image towered over Hux and Ren. He regarded both of them with narrowed eyes. “Since my initial efforts to resolve your quarreling has failed, I see that a different approach is necessary. Kylo Ren,” he said, turning to him. “Do you know of the battle meld?”  
Ren drew back. “Yes,” he said cautiously.  
“Good. I see no other way to overcome your petty disagreements. You will initiate this bond with General Hux.”  
Hux started. “What?”   
“A true meld can only be created between Force users,” Ren protested. “Hux has no such power.”  
“There will be no discussion,” Snoke hissed. “Resolve yourselves through the battle meld. If you fail, I will need to take far more drastic measures.”  
Snoke’s image disappeared. In his wake, Ren and Hux stood in fuming silence.   
“What is this meld?” Hux demanded. “You cannot expect me to simply go along with this.”  
“Leader Snoke has ordered it. You don’t have a choice.”   
With that, Ren spun on his heel and swiftly left the Holochamber.


	18. Chapter 18

“Red-2 to Black Leader, do you copy?”  
“We’re the only two people on this channel, Finn. You don’t have to do the _ Black Leader _ thing every time, you know.” Poe’s voice came through Finn’s headset amid a slight wash of static.  
“I’m trying to practice,” Finn said stubbornly. “And you’re supposed to be teaching me.”  
Poe chuckled. “I love your enthusiasm.”  
“Good to hear that one of you is taking this seriously,” said a third voice.  
“Lieutenant Connix,” Poe said. “How nice of you to join us. Do you need us back at the base already?”  
“Not yet. Just letting you know the scans came back clear for a couple of parsecs in all directions, so feel free to cruise around the neighborhood.”  
“Thanks, Con.”  
“Don’t call me that. And just so you know, other people actually use this channel all the time. So maybe keep the romance to a minimum over the comm lines.”  
Finn tried to sputter out a protest but Poe just gave a short laugh. “Copy that, Lieutenant. We’ll be back in a few hours.”  
“Good luck, Finn. Don’t let Poe wander off. Connix out.”  
There was a click on the line before Poe’s cheerful voice filled the silence. “Okay, let’s go for a ride. I’m patching through some coordinates to your ship now. You don’t need to do anything else—just confirm them and it’ll set your heading.”  
“Got the coordinates. Now what?”  
“Now we jump. Your ship will drop you out of hyperspace as soon as you reach that destination.”  
“And how long will that take?”  
“Depends on whether the coordinate system on your X-wing is working right. It’s a little touchy on those older models. Okay, ready? Three, two, one—”  
Finn pulled the lever next to the main console, and the serene blackness in front of him flickered away.  
Hyperspace in an X-wing was frankly terrifying. Finn found himself remembering with a brief pang of longing that he’d never had to worry that any First Order vessels were going to shake apart at the seams. Dropping out of hyperspace wasn’t any smoother than being in it, but Finn was relieved to see Poe’s X-wing waiting for him once his own ship had slammed to a stop.   
He could hear the grin in Poe’s voice. “Welcome to the scenic Makarek system.”  
“What are we doing here, exactly?”  
“I thought we’d do a regular patrol run. Once you get used to that X-wing, you’ll do these patrols on your own. For now, just follow me. We’ll take an easy lap.”  
Finn kept pace with Poe as they lazily dodged past asteroids and around the scattered debris of a fractured moon. A few minutes passed before Poe said, “Hey, slow down. There’s something up ahead.”  
Finn squinted. “All I see is a bunch of rocks.”  
“Look on your energy scanner.”  
On one of the screens among the gauges and controls, a small red dot blinked in a field of empty green. “What is it?” Finn asked.  
“Not sure. BB-8? Any thoughts?”  
A flurry of chirps.  
“All right, we’ll get in closer.”  
In the three-dimensional field of the energy scanner, the red dot grew nearer. Finn strained to see the real thing through the cockpit’s front window, but he couldn’t make anything out against the black expanse of space in front of him.   
BB-8 beeped something to Poe. “A signaling device?” Poe repeated in surprise. “Signaling to who?”  
BB-8’s response seemed indignant.  
“Okay, okay. Encrypted. Got it.”  
“Maybe it’s marked with a serial number or a manufacturer? Something that would tell us where it came from?” Finn suggested.  
“Good thinking,” Poe said. “BB-8, you wanna jump into the navigation system? Get us close enough for visuals?”  
BB-8 beeped an affirmative.  
“Follow us, Finn. Stay close.”  
Behind them, a massive, dull red planet hovered, blocking out the sun. Suddenly, they cleared the upper edge of the planet’s shadow and the debris field in front of them was washed in cold light. BB-8 squawked.   
“I see it too,” Finn said. Among the matte gray of the floating chunks of rock, there was something with a distinctive metallic sheen, its shape too regular to be natural. “Oh, no,” Finn breathed as the object drew closer. “No, no, no. This is bad.”  
“What’s bad?”  
The sleek, rounded cylinder, nearly the same length as an X-wing, drifted towards them. “It’s a First Order probe,” Finn said grimly. “It collects information on every system it comes across and sends the data back to the Order.”  
“A probe?” Poe sounded doubtful. “How much information can it be collecting? It’s barely moving.”  
“That’s probably because it detected us. It’s designed to route towards anomalies. And we’re definitely what the First Order would consider an anomaly.”  
“Huh,” Poe said, and then paused. “Well...should we blow it up?”  
“No way,” Finn said. “This thing must have all kinds of information about where the Order is, what they’ve been up to—everything General Organa has been trying to find out. We’ve got to get it to her.”  
“So we’ll take it back to base.”  
“Are you crazy? It’s still transmitting. That will lead the Order straight to the Resistance.”  
Poe chuckled. “Leia’s right, you’re definitely the smart one. Okay, what’s the plan?”  
Finn drummed his fingers on the joystick, thinking. “Can BB-8 remotely jam the probe’s signal? At least temporarily?”  
Through Finn’s headset came a long, complicated series of cheeps and whirs. Finally, Poe said, “We’ll call that a yes. Then what?”  
“We need to get it down to a planet. Somewhere far away from the Resistance, just in case the Order gets it back online. Do you know somewhere?”  
Poe only had to think for a few moments. “Yeah, actually. I think I’ve got a place.”


	19. Chapter 19

Ren was already in the conference room when Hux arrived, seated at the table with his mask beside him. He didn’t look up until Hux came to stand directly in front of him.  
“You’re late,” Ren said.  
Hux looked at him coldly. “I was trying to finish my work on the bridge. And I haven’t, yet, so I would like to get this over with so I can return to it.”  
“A meld won’t work without your willing cooperation.”  
“You have my willing cooperation. You have whatever you need to get me out of here as quickly as possible,” Hux snapped.  
Ren looked uncharacteristically somber. “Sit,” he said, inclining his head towards the seat beside him.   
Hux took in a breath to argue, then obeyed.  
Turning his own chair to face him, Ren carefully removed his gloves. “Have you heard of battle melds?”  
Reluctantly, Hux said, “No.”  
Ren’s mouth thinned. “When it works, a meld creates an open channel between two or more minds. A true battle meld will allow the participants to fight as a single unit.”  
“We’re not fighting together,” Hux said with a sneer.  
“No,” Ren agreed. “Leader Snoke intends for this meld to...limit the conflict between us.” He took a deep breath and placed one hand on either side of Hux’s face, his fingers pressing lightly against Hux’s temples. “It may take several tries to create a full meld.”  
“How will I know if it works?”  
“You’ll know,” Ren answered simply. “Are you ready?”  
Hux made an effort to mute his irritation, knowing intuitively that it would only get in the way of the meld. After a moment to reach an approximation of quiet in his thoughts, he nodded.   
Ren closed his eyes. Immediately Hux felt the unmistakable sensation of an alien presence trying to force its way into his mind. Hux had heard Ren in his thoughts countless times by now, but he understood that this was something different, something more. An attempt to inhabit the same space. Fascinated, Hux kept his own eyes open, watching the expression of intent concentration on Ren’s face. He was so fixated on the minute twitching around Ren’s eyes that he was startled when they suddenly flew open.   
“You’re fighting me,” Ren said irately.   
“I’m not,” Hux countered. “I wouldn’t know how.”  
“You’re keeping me out.”  
“I don’t even know what that means, Ren,” Hux said. “You’re supposed to be the expert, aren’t you?” He arched a brow coolly. “Find a way in.”  
A dark expression clouded Ren’s face for a moment. Then he adjusted his fingers on Hux’s face and let his eyes fall shut, and this time Hux did too.  
The second attempt was immediately different from the first. Hux felt a rapid series of pushes against the surface of his mind, probing for weak spots that would allow Ren through. He could feel Ren’s impatience with growing clarity—he was frustrated that he was having so much trouble creating the meld, annoyed that Hux was resisting him, ashamed that the Supreme Leader had asked this of him in the first place. The touches against Hux’s mind intensified into sharp strikes, violent and unrelenting—   
Without meaning to, Hux pulled away from Ren so that his fingers were no longer against his skin, and the pressure in Hux’s brain ceased.   
“I nearly had it,” Ren spat. He sat back in his own chair, agitation flashing in his eyes. “I had almost gotten through.”  
“It felt...wrong,” he said, somewhat defensively. “You said I would know a successful meld when I felt it. That wasn’t it.”  
“We will never have a true meld if you keep flinching away,” Ren snapped.  
Hux’s expression hardened. “Fine,” he said. “Again.”  
He straightened in his chair as Ren took a steadying breath and leaned forward. Once again, he pressed his fingers along the side of Hux’s face. He paused with his eyes on the ground, seemingly taking a moment to gather himself. Then he looked up at Hux, who nodded once. They both closed their eyes.  
Ren’s efforts had crystallized to a razor-sharp edge. In the brief moment that Hux could think anything at all, he understood what his brain had been protecting itself from.   
The sudden onslaught of Ren’s thoughts crushed the breath out of Hux’s lungs. He could do nothing to resist the assault on his mind—rage jolted through his veins like sparks along wires—his throat closing tight with the terror that he was not enough, that he would he would never do what he was meant to do, that he would fail—the shame and the self-loathing, the doubt and the loneliness, compounding one another into a desperate single-minded drive to fulfill the destiny owed him by blood and birthright—   
Hux wrenched open his eyes and found that Ren’s were open too, his expression pained. He could dimly feel Ren still moving through his mind, trying to repair the damage he had wrought.   
Hux managed to gasp, “Is this...how you feel all the time?”  
Ren’s fingertips pressed harder into Hux’s skin. “We’re not in my mind,” he said, his voice raw. “We’re in yours.”  
Hux’s breath caught in his throat. He tried to protest that these thoughts could not be his own but before he could find his voice, the unfamiliar flood of emotion started to take shape. Nameless feeling came sharply into focus as places and people Hux knew too well: the crippling weight of humiliation as a nurse told him that his father would not wait for him to recover and had left him behind on Arkanis—endless hours of lost sleep and missed meals while he convinced himself that nothing mattered as much as the work and to stop was weakness—an electric thrill of rage—at a blur of nameless officers, first his superiors and then his subordinates—at Snoke, at Kylo Ren himself, at anything that stood in his way. It had taken Hux a lifetime to temper it all into steel and only a few moments for Ren to shatter it.  
His lungs ached. He tried to jerk free of Ren’s grasp but found that he was paralyzed.  
“No,” Ren said, and Hux knew as soon as he spoke that he was trying to hide the fear in his voice. “You can’t leave, I have to fix it—”  
His eyes bored into Hux’s, flickering with tiny frantic moments. Somewhere above the chaos of his own thoughts, Hux could feel Ren’s presence—he was terrified, and worn thin. Hux knew that his own mind was nearing collapse. He could feel it closing off as what remained of his willpower gathered behind a singular, desperate need to get away from Ren.  
Ren let out a sharp breath and Hux found himself released, the violent pressure gone from both his temples and the interior of his mind. He shoved himself backwards from the table, his chest heaving. Ren was talking to him in a tone that sounded like pleading, his face pale and eyes wide. Hux didn’t know what he was saying and had neither the breath nor the presence of mind to be able to tell him so. He managed to pull himself to his feet and staggered out of the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So approx. four years ago, we read this post and loved it & thought it would be a cool scene. Shortly thereafter it turned into an 80,000+ word saga. 
> 
> https://h-uxed.tumblr.com/post/138235933230/imagine-if-after-the-events-on-starkiller-base
> 
> We can't thank h-uxed enough for the inspiration it gave us, so please check them out!


	20. Chapter 20

“Where are we, exactly?”  
“I think it’s called Tagaros. Back when we were first looking for a Resistance base, before we settled on D’Qar, this was one of the planets in the running. But we passed it over because it was too far away from...everything.”  
“Then where did all this come from?” Finn gestured to indicate the cavernous interior of the dilipidated hangar to which Poe had brought them. It was empty, save for a few skeletal X-wings and, directly in front of them, the probe they’d brought from Makarek.  
“What, the hangar? This is all old stuff. Leia said she thought it was probably a minor base for the Rebel Alliance, but she didn’t know anything else about it.”  
BB-8 gave an impatient chirp, pointedly reminding them to get back to the task at hand.   
“He’s got a point. Okay, Finn, you’re up.”  
Finn knelt down next to the probe. “If this is the same design they used way back, there should be a latch…” He ran his fingers along the underside of the probe until he felt a seam in the metal, so thin it was impossible to see just by looking. He found the latch and pried the panel away, exposing several neat plaits of wires. The three of them leaned in to peer at the inner mechanics.   
Finn sat back first. “All you, BB-8.”  
BB-8 balked, antenna quivering as he beeped out what was obviously a strong disagreement.  
Finn looked to Poe for translation, who relayed, “He doesn’t think it’s such a great idea to plug into something that’s directly connected to the First Order network. Which does seem like a valid concern.”  
“We need what’s on there,” Finn insisted. “We’ll be able to see all the data that it’s been reporting. Where it’s been, where it’s going. The Order sends these things out in hundreds. We could use this one to find the rest and destroy them.”  
BB-8 rocked back and forth, undecided. Finn gave Poe an exasperated look and jerked his head towards BB-8.   
“Give it a go, BB-8,” Poe said, encouragingly. “Just a quick peek.”  
After what seemed to be a doubtful glance in Finn’s direction, BB-8 turned his attention to the probe. A panel opened in BB-8’s front, and a thin metal arm emerged. It reached into the open compartment of the probe. BB-8 gave a few clipped beeps.  
“He says all the data is ciphered. Pretty well.”  
“Well, can you bypass it?”  
BB-8 stopped what he was doing to swivel his head towards Finn, fixing him with what had to be a patronizing glare. Finn suppressed a roll of his eyes.  
A few moments passed. “How’s it looking, buddy?” Poe prompted. He listened to BB-8’s report, then said, “He’s through the primary cipher. Uploading the data to his own storage now.”  
“What kind of information is on there?” Finn said eagerly, leaning in towards the probe as if he would be able to see what BB-8 was doing.   
“Coordinates for the probe’s route,” Poe translated. “Star system scans. Manufacturing details…”  
“Find the probe’s main directive,” Finn said. “Somewhere, there’s a way into the whole network.”  
A shrill alarm suddenly began to blare from somewhere within the probe, a red light pulsing inside the exposed compartment. BB-8 let out a screech and tried to yank his arm away, but before he could, the door to the compartment slammed shut.   
“He’s trapped,” Poe said, just as panicked as BB-8. “What the hell is it doing?”  
“We must’ve tripped some kind of security protocol,” said Finn. The initial continuous alarm had splintered into repetitive, piercing beeps. “I think I can disarm it. BB-8, don’t move.”  
BB-8 gave a frightened chirp in response. Finn stood up and vaulted over the probe. He pried off another panel, this one filled with small analog switches embedded in a circuitry board. “Come on, come on, come on…” he muttered, his eyes scanning over the controls.   
The beeps had grown faster. With a rush of dismay, Finn realized that it wasn’t just an alarm tone: it was a countdown.  
“Finn, what’s the plan?” The feigned calm in Poe’s voice did nothing to reassure BB-8, who was still trying frantically to free his arm. “That beeping sounds an awful lot like a self-destruct alarm. That’s not what it is, right?”  
“No, that’s definitely what it is.”  
“If you can’t disarm it—”  
“I got it, I got it!” Finally, he found what he was looking for—the manual override. He punched in the Order’s standard override code and slammed his palm on the failsafe switch.  
The alarm fell abruptly silent. The sliding cover that had pinned BB-8 disappeared back into the probe’s innards.   
“I got it,” Finn repeated, slightly dazed and pleasantly surprised at himself.  
With a joyous yip, BB-8 yanked his metal arm out of the compartment and retracted it into his spherical body.   
Poe let out a long sigh of relief and clapped BB-8’s side. “You okay, buddy?”  
BB-8 beeped his confirmation, then turned to Finn and chirped happily.   
“You’re welcome.” Finn glanced at Poe. “We’d better get out of here fast.”  
A frown crossed Poe’s face. “But it’s disarmed now, isn’t it?”  
“Yeah, and the Order definitely knows about it by now. They might have overlooked a probe going temporarily offline, but there’s no way they’re going to a self-destruct trigger. They’ll come looking for this, and we do not want to be here when they find it.”  
Poe gave a short nod. “All right. You get all the data that you could, BB-8?”  
Another rapidfire affirmative.  
“Perfect. Then let’s get out of here.” 


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ***Warning: Non-con and violence in this chapter.

The day after the attempted meld, Hux hadn’t shown up to the bridge at all. The day after that, he’d forced himself to make a brief appearance, if only to suppress the rumors that he knew were already starting to grow.  
The haze left behind by the meld had not faded. If anything, it seemed to have grown worse. Everything felt slightly distorted, slightly farther away than it should have been. When people spoke to him the words seemed to float vaguely before they settled into some sort of sensible order in Hux’s mind. It took even longer for Hux to summon a response, even a perfunctory one intended solely to make whoever was speaking leave him alone.  
Hux had planned to spend as little time as possible on the bridge. He’d passed the morning in a secluded war room, furious at himself for not being able to accomplish anything useful but stubbornly trying anyway. It shredded his nerves, being alone in the empty room and trapped in the unsettling fog that Ren had left in his mind. But being on the bridge was worse.  
He paced his usual circuit, gathering updates from the officers at their consoles, not even trying to follow along with what they were saying as long as they didn’t ask him a question. Umano was still giving her report—something about a probe that had gone offline in the Makarek system—when Ren stepped onto the bridge.  
The moment Hux saw him, a dizzying wave of pinpricks rose up in his mind. The feeling settled into a vague malaise that intensified with each step Ren took towards him. His presence seemed to make the distorted haze worsen, until Hux’s thoughts felt as disconnected from each other as Hux himself felt from everything around him.  
“Sir?”  
Hux realized he’d been staring at Ren. When he glanced back to Umano, she was looking at him with something like concern. “I just asked if you were all right, sir,” Umano said, cautiously. “You look a little pale.”  
“I’m fine,” he said, surprised at how cold his voice sounded.  
Umano continued to study him. “There’s nothing pressing in the report,” she went on, more gently. “I can compile the data and have it sent to you, if you’re not feeling well—”  
“When I require your recommendation, Lieutenant Umano, I will ask for it,” Hux said severely. “Until then, I expect you to do your job and keep your unsolicited opinions to yourself.”  
Umano turned back to her console. “Yes, sir.”  
Ren had stopped several paces away and waited until Hux reluctantly faced him before he spoke. “I came to remind you that we’re not done with our assignment yet, General,” Ren said coolly. “Since you were indisposed yesterday.”  
Ren had shown up at Hux’s quarters the previous night, asking, plaintively, to let him help. Hux, too rattled and exhausted to argue, had simply ignored him until he left. Now, with the eyes of the bridge on them, ignoring him was a less viable option.   
“I have work to do, Ren,” Hux said, hearing the tiredness in his voice.   
“It’s not a request. The Supreme Leader expects to hear about our progress.”   
Hux stared back at him for several moments in silence, aware of the rest of the bridge watching them and pretending they weren’t. “Fine,” he managed briskly. “Come with me, then.”  
He pivoted on his heel and left the bridge, Ren a few paces behind. He led them into the first empty conference room he found. “What exactly,” Hux said, spinning to face Ren as the door slid shut behind him, “are you expecting to happen now?”  
Ren unlatched his mask, removed it and set it on the table at the center of the room. He said, quietly, “Let me try again.”  
“You cannot possibly do any more damage than you already have.”  
“I can fix it.”  
“Fix it? You mean this isn’t what you wanted to happen?”  
“No.” He met Hux’s eyes, his expression almost wounded. “I didn’t.”  
“Then you’ll have to tell Leader Snoke that you’ve failed.”  
“You don’t want me to do that.”  
Something in his tone gave Hux pause. “Why?” he said suspiciously.  
“You heard him. If we can’t complete the meld, there will be more drastic measures. Whatever I did to you, the Supreme Leader can do much worse. I’ve seen it.” Ren looked away for a moment. Then, he said, “Just let me try again.”  
Hux was silent long enough for Ren to take a step towards him and murmur, “I know how I left it, Hux. I know you just want to be able to go back to your work. Let’s get this over with. It’ll be better for both of us.”  
Hux let out a long breath. “Here?” he said, his voice suddenly thinner. “Or somewhere else?”  
The tension in Ren’s posture relaxed very slightly. “This is fine.”  
Hux sat at the conference table. Ren mirrored him and slid off his gloves, setting them beside the mask.  
“I won’t try a full meld right away,” Ren said. “For now, just...stay still and listen. I’ll try to repair our bond first.” Ren rolled back his shoulders and set his hands on either side of Hux’s head.   
Hux felt Ren’s familiar presence touch the edge of his consciousness. He barely had time to register the sensation before he felt something entirely unexpected: a feeling like a door slamming shut with bone-rattling force.  
Ren drew back, blinking at Hux in surprise and annoyance. “What was that?”  
“How should I know?” Hux answered waspishly.  
More brief exploratory touches slipped along the fringes of his mind. Hux was as surprised as Ren to find that each of Ren’s attempts was met with a decisive shove, a new mental reflex as unconscious as a heartbeat.  
“You have to let me in.”  
“I’m not doing it on purpose,” Hux said, unperturbed. “I’ve never been able to keep you out when I wanted. I can’t help it now that I can’t let you in.”  
Ren looked increasingly vexed. “Try,” he said, in what Hux assumed was the closest Ren could get to patience.   
Still Hux could feel movement around his thoughts, and still Ren’s efforts got no farther than the surface of Hux’s mind before he was shut out again. “You’re not cooperating,” Ren said through gritted teeth.   
“Or,” Hux said, “you still don’t know what you’re doing.”  
A twinge at the corner of Hux’s mind, sharp and definite as a needle. “I’m trying to help you.”  
Hux’s eyes narrowed, a sneer touching his mouth. “No,” he said softly. “You’re obeying Leader Snoke, in your usual spineless, pathetic way.”  
The hesitant touches against Hux’s mind abruptly ceased. “I don’t owe you this,” Ren said, his voice suddenly colder. “I don’t need to help you.”  
“You do, though. Leader Snoke gave you an order, and now you have to follow it.” Hux’s eyes swept unapologetically over Ren. “You know, I used to think it was odd,” he said softly, “how much you love to grovel and beg. So good at it too. But now I’ve realized that Snoke has you so well-trained that as soon as anyone gives you an order the only thing you know how to do is submit—”  
The next thing Hux knew he was on the ground, his head reeling and rivulets of blood streaming from his lip. Before he could make his eyes focus again, two fingers tilted his chin upwards so that he was looking into Ren’s face. “Walk with me.”  
Hux didn’t move, barely able to make sense of Ren’s words.  
_ “Walk,”_ Ren hissed. “Or I’ll make you crawl.”  
Hux stumbled as he got to his feet, pulling himself up by the back of the nearest chair and trying to clear his head despite the pounding pain in his skull. Blearily he followed Ren out of the room, uncertain of where they were going and too dazed to ask. After a few moments that felt like longer, he found himself outside the door of Ren’s quarters.   
Hux had barely stepped inside before he felt himself suddenly jerked straight backwards against the wall. Ren’s face filled all of his vision and suddenly Hux could neither see nor think of anything else—Ren was in his mind so completely that there was no longer any room for Hux himself.   
It felt like freefall; any semblance of rational thought was hurtling past him faster than he could grab onto it. The only steady thing left was the presence of Ren. Hux didn’t have the words for it—the Force or the Dark Side or whatever it was, not quite physical but as real and present as the blood roaring in Hux’s ears. It was throbbing through Ren, rolling off of him, drowning Hux.   
Ren held his face so close to Hux’s that their lips brushed as he spoke. “Did you think I couldn’t get into your mind, Hux?” he asked softly.  
Hux was struggling for breath, his fingertips numb. “What are you doing?” he choked.  
He watched Hux’s face raptly. “I tried to do you a favor and do the meld on your terms. But I hope you didn’t forget that your mind was always mine to take.”  
Hux was gasping, crying. The shapeless darkness acquired form—painful, crystalline memories and shadowy unspoken fears, cracks and corners of his mind that Hux himself barely knew.   
“This is what you were really afraid of, isn’t it?” Ren said. “That I would take your weakness and use it against you.” His mouth trailed to Hux’s cheek slowly. “Did you forget that this is what I am? That this is what I could do?”  
“Please,” Hux breathed.   
The darkness withdrew. Hux crumpled, his hands closing convulsively on the front of Ren’s shirt. Ren caught him, bracing him against the wall.  
Hux couldn’t hold his head up. His cheek rested on Ren’s shoulder, breathing in deep gasps against Ren’s neck.   
Ren’s hands slid from Hux’s chest down the length of his arms, pinning his wrists to the wall. Hux felt his head dragged upright. Then Ren kissed him, deep and slow, the kiss that Hux never let him have. Hux felt Ren’s tongue press inside his mouth and he realized dimly it was a kiss that Ren meant, one that he had waited for.   
Ren seemed to realize that he had shown too much, and in the next instant Hux could not breathe. Ren’s hand was lifted, his fingertips delicately grazing Hux’s chin. His hand trailed slowly down Hux’s chest to his waist and stroked along the cloth of Hux’s uniform pants. Hux was still choking but he couldn’t stop himself from pressing forward against the pressure of Ren’s hand.  
The Force hold on Hux’s windpipe vanished as Ren pulled off Hux’s tunic and tossed it aside. He dragged his hands over Hux’s chest, pausing when he caught Hux’s dog tags between his fingers. He lifted the metal tags carefully and turned them over, inspecting them. “Brendol Hux,” he read, as if musing to himself. “What are you without your name?” He pulled his gaze from the dog tags back up to Hux’s face, then in one abrupt motion yanked on the chain until it snapped at the back of Hux’s neck. “Nothing at all.” Hux looked back at him numbly as Ren let the chain run through his fingers and drop to the floor.   
He grabbed Hux’s shoulder and turned him roughly so that his face was against the wall. Hux felt something bind his wrists, painfully tight. He yanked instinctively at the invisible bonds. “What are you waiting for?” he hissed over his shoulder, panting as Ren pinned Hux’s body with his own. “We know how this is going to end.”  
Ren put his mouth against Hux’s ear and Hux felt him smile. “Do we?” he murmured, and held out his hand. Hux heard something solid and metallic hit Ren’s palm and knew what it was without having to look.   
Hux closed his eyes as the crackle of the ignited saber thrummed through the room. Ren pulled on his bound wrists, forcing Hux to come up off the wall and lean into Ren for support. Hux felt the heat of the saber close to his face, dropping until it was level with his throat, the sparks hissing beneath Hux’s chin. Without meaning to, he let out a soft whimper. Ren drew in a breath and pressed up harder against him.   
“As good as your fear feels, I won’t kill you,” he said softly. “But I can always hurt you a little more.”  
He rotated the handle of the saber in his hand. The blade remained where it was against Hux’s neck and the crossguard touched Hux’s shoulder. His skin fizzled as the sputtering plasma brushed against it. Ren held it there for several seconds, then pushed it in farther. Hux had been screaming since the instant the saber was on his skin, long ragged howls that tore his throat raw.   
“Do you still want me to fuck you?” Ren whispered.  
Hux couldn’t speak. He shook his head desperately, his sobs weak and muffled.   
Ren’s hold on Hux tightened. “Good,” he breathed.   
Hux heard the blade of the saber extinguish with a muted hiss before the harsh ridges of metal, still hot, bit into the soft flesh under his chin. Hux felt Ren’s hand fumbling at his back, then reaching around to his waist.  
Ren forced Hux’s head against the wall. Hux’s back arched as Ren pressed inside him, his voice too hoarse to cry out. His hands opened and closed spasmodically on the wall, his fingernails scraping the metal. Ren was moving slowly, almost delicately, wanting it to last. He turned Hux’s face towards his own so that they were cheek to cheek. Hux was whimpering incoherent protestations that dissolved into the word “no,” over and over again. Ren moaned, his breath hot against Hux’s ear.  
Ren’s grip tensed, pressing the saber handle more deeply against Hux’s throat. He gave a low, falling three-pitch moan that Hux knew so well, a tremor running through his whole body as he pressed himself against Hux and rode through his release.  
Even after he had finished, Ren’s hand didn’t stop moving on Hux, although Hux barely felt it until a shock of pleasure suddenly electrified his overburdened senses. He came over Ren’s hand, and he was too weak to resist as Ren turned him around so they were once again face to face.  
Ren traced his fingers delicately across Hux’s mouth, smearing cum along the contours of his lips. He was still for several impossibly long moments, regarding Hux with an incalculable expression on his face. Hux could only look back at him, waiting to see if it was over.  
Finally and without a word, Ren pulled him off of the wall. He would have fallen if Ren had not let Hux lean on him. Exhausted to the point of collapse, Hux let Ren guide him to the bed and found he had no strength left to fight sleep.

***

Hux woke up with no idea where he was. The unfamiliar shadows and angles of Ren’s quarters seemed to surge around him, resisting his attempts to make them into something he recognized. He sat up blearily and felt pain ricochet through his body. The worst came to nest in his shoulder, where the charred skin had crusted to a noxious black. He turned to look at the other side of the bed and found Ren still asleep, his face half-cloaked in a haze of black hair.  
Slipping out from under the covers, which Hux could not remember pulling onto himself, Hux tentatively rose from the bed, holding his tongue between his teeth as his body resisted every movement. He wanted to leave before Ren woke but as he glanced down at himself, he realized that he was in no shape to walk through the ship.   
He padded as quietly as he could through Ren’s rooms. The thick shadows were interrupted only by the row of softly glowing white lights set into the wall above the floor. Hux used them to find his way to the washroom, not daring to turn on any more lights.   
He showered, feeling the sting of previously unknown wounds as the water searched along the curves of his skin. He drew in a sharp breath as the water struck his burned shoulder, the pain blooming anew.  
He navigated back through Ren’s absurdly labyrinthine quarters and managed to find his clothes in the low light. He leaned down to retrieve his tunic and heard the bed shift.  
He straightened and turned. Ren was regarding him from the bed, his eyes glimmering.  
“Hux,” he said softly.  
Hux pulled on his tunic and gave no answer.  
Ren was sitting up with the covers half-thrown off of him, as if in Hux’s absence he had started to get up to follow him but then thought better of it. “Are you all right?”  
Hux slipped his coat over his shoulders and started to do up the buttons. “I was just leaving.”  
“We should try the meld again.”  
Hux glanced at him, disbelieving. Ren met his eyes, solemn as Hux had ever seen him.  
Before Hux could answer, something silver glinted in the corner of his eye: his dog tags, still lying where they had fallen. He picked them up carefully, lips thinning as his fingers traced along the broken chain. When he glanced back at the bed, Ren was staring at him, his eyes wide. An unexpected burst of feeling leapt through Hux, for a moment radiating off of Ren like the beam of a floodlight: guilt.  
The feeling vanished nearly as soon as it had come, a fleeting ghost of reflected emotion. Besides what it told Hux about Ren’s state of mind, he realized it meant something else too—that the channel between them was open again.  
The pain in his body had momentarily eclipsed the buzzing in his brain, but no sooner had the thought occurred than the dissonant hum reasserted itself, a throbbing sine wave that rendered him unable to follow any train of thought to its conclusion. Ren was right. He couldn’t leave it like this.  
“All right,” Hux said.  
Ren straightened, his mouth twitching. Then he stood from the bed, grabbed his own clothes from the floor and hastily pulled them on. He crossed to a table along the wall, smoothing his hair back from his face with a cursory motion. He looked up at Hux expectantly until Hux took the seat next to him.  
“I think,” Ren murmured, “it will be easier this time.”  
He laid his hands on either side of Hux’s face and Hux found himself too tired to flinch. Ren didn’t move for several moments, then stole a glance at Hux almost tentatively. “Are you ready?”  
“Yes,” Hux said.  
Almost immediately, Ren burst through clearly and cleanly into Hux’s mind. Hux could not have said if the ease with which Ren created the meld was because the channel between them had reopened, or merely because Ren had so thoroughly destroyed Hux’s defenses. The latter thought made him intensely uneasy. Ren must have heard this reaction echo through their shared space, because another burst of remorse flashed all the way into Hux’s core.  
Hux closed his eyes. Once he was used to it, it was strangely refreshing, and more relaxing than anything he would have imagined something called a “battle meld” to be—although he had a vague idea that Ren was not using it towards its intended purpose. He could feel Ren’s presence in the same dark corners of his mind that he had forced his way into yesterday, but now the touches to Hux’s thoughts were deft and gentle. Hux made no effort to bar Ren from anything he could reach. There seemed little point. Ren had seen it all already.  
He could not have guessed how long the meld lasted, with only his own thoughts to measure by and sometimes, increasingly, Ren’s. As Ren brushed gently through Hux’s memories, he touched on the most recent ones, the ones from the previous night. He sifted through them slowly, like fingers combing through ash.   
_ I’m sorry_. Ren’s words were all regret and no sound.  
Hux’s response was immediate but curbed: _ Don’t be_.  
A glimmer of puzzlement, pushed aside. Time to wonder about that later. Time now to focus on the task at hand. No more mistakes.  
_ I trust you_, Hux said calmly.  
A flicker of chagrin. Embarrassed, but pleased.  
Sometime after that, Ren seemed to reach some unknown conclusion. Hux felt him depart from his mind quietly and without fanfare, and for the first time in what felt like ages, Hux became aware of Ren’s hands on his face.  
His thumb brushed along the top of Hux’s ear. “Any better?” he asked quietly.  
Hux dropped his eyes, suddenly conscious of how calm he had allowed himself to be during the meld. “Yes,” he answered, as crisply as he could manage. He hesitated for a moment and then added, “Thank you.”  
Bewilderment showed on Ren’s face but he recovered quickly. His eyes skimmed over Hux’s form. “I can heal your injuries.” Ren reached towards him and halted when Hux tensed.  
“No,” Hux said, uncomfortably. “I don’t need healing.”  
Ren’s mouth thinned. “At least the shoulder.”  
“No.”  
“It will scar if I don’t.”  
Hux’s eyes flickered to the deep diagonal gash across Ren’s face.  
“Let me do it,” Ren said chidingly. When Hux didn’t answer, he went on, “Take off your coat.”  
Hux obliged. Ren rose and stood over him. He held his hand above the ragged, singed flesh. “It will hurt,” he cautioned. “Tell me when you want me to stop.”  
“Go ahead, then,” Hux said.  
He slowly became aware of a cold sensation emanating from Ren’s palm. He could feel the wound tearing open, the tattered remnants replaced with new muscle and flesh.  
Finally he let out a sharp breath he hadn’t known he was holding and the pain vanished. Before Ren dropped his hand to his side, Hux saw that it was shaking badly. He had gone ghost-pale and he sank slowly back into his own chair.   
“It hurts you too,” Hux said in surprise.   
“It’s draining, for severe injuries,” Ren said dismissively. “I can heal the rest of it—”  
“No, no more.”  
“That will still leave a scar.”  
Hux glanced at his shoulder. The wound was nearly gone, receded to a small red mark where the burn had been the deepest. “Fine,” he said, absently. “Let it scar.”  
Ren looked doubtful. “Are you sure?”  
“Yes,” Hux said, in a characteristic way that closed the issue for further discussion. Ren watched him silently as Hux pulled on his coat, his fingers moving up the buttons to the clasp at his throat. Then he reached out, ignoring the downward flicker of Ren’s eyes, and brushed Ren’s hair back gently from his forehead. He turned abruptly and left Ren’s quarters before either of them could say anything more. 


	22. Chapter 22

Hux had barely stepped into the command wing before he was intercepted by Lieutenant Jamire. “Sir. A new report just came in from the surveillance division—it’s about the missing probe.”   
It seemed like an extremely long time ago that Hux had heard anything about a missing probe. “Yes?”   
“According to the last signal from the Makarek system, the probe was briefly back online. An attempt was made to access encrypted information, and the probe initiated a self-destruct. But someone overrode the security protocol manually.”  
Hux’s gaze sharpened on Jamire. “Do we know how much encrypted information was compromised?”  
“Not yet, sir. The probe is offline now but technicians are still inspecting what data they have.” Jamire paused. “It would’ve required detailed knowledge of First Order technology to override the self-destruct. If someone familiar with First Order coding still has access to the probe…”  
“Then we need to get it out of their hands,” Hux agreed. He thought for a few moments—it was too dangerous to send a First Order squadron after the probe, especially since that might take them directly into Resistance-controlled space. They couldn’t risk a firefight with either the New Republic or the Resistance, not while their political position with the Outer Rim planets was so tenuous.   
But there were some organizations that could move more easily through contested territory than the First Order. And some of them would gladly get into a firefight with anyone, for the right price.  
“If there’s any new information about the probe, have it routed to my datapad immediately,” Hux said. “And alert the main hangar that they’ll have a ship arriving under my security clearance before 0900.”

***

Ren had quietly joined Hux on the bridge when word came that the Guavian Death Gang was waiting in the council room. Hux started to leave, then paused and turned abruptly to Ren. “Come with me.”   
Ren tilted his head slightly. “Why?”  
“To provide your signature form of support,” he said, very dryly.  
“What form is that?”  
“Stand silently,” Hux said, “and look intimidating.”  
Ren snorted, a harsh, metallic sound through the distortion of the mask. “Fine.”  
They walked the short distance to the conference room. Hux took a moment to adjust his greatcoat before he strode in, Ren a step behind him.   
In a few long strides, Hux crossed to the table in the center of the room. He stood behind an empty chair, eyeing Bala-Tik and the faceless, red-suited henchmen on either side of him.  
“Thank you for accepting my invitation on such short notice, Bala-Tik,” Hux said.  
Bala-Tik’s eyes slid past Hux to fix on Ren, undoubtedly taking stock of the lightsaber hilt on his belt. Hux felt something subtle and cold pulse past him towards Bala-Tik, and watched as Bala-Tik’s hand twitched on the tabletop, his pupils dilating preternaturally despite the room’s harsh light. Hux realized Ren had entered Bala-Tik’s mind.  
Bala-Tik, unaware of the occurrence, jutted out his chin to indicate Ren. “Who’s that?”  
“You have your guards,” Hux said lightly, “and I have mine. Let’s begin.” He reached towards a decanter at the center of the table and started to pour two glasses as he continued, “You’ve been informed, I presume, why we asked for your assistance.”  
Bala-Tik watched Hux and ignored the glass proffered to him until Hux set it on the table. “One of your probes was captured,” he said. “So why don’t you get it yourselves?”  
“Our resources are being focused elsewhere.”  
“What’s so important about it?”   
Hux took a sip of his drink. “That won’t be relevant to your assignment, should you accept.”  
Bala-Tik leaned his elbows forward on the table. “If you want me to risk my men, I expect to know what I’m risking them for.”  
“The probe has been captured, we can only assume by the Resistance**.** Destroy the probe and you will be generously rewarded.”  
“Destroy? Not recover?”  
“Destroy.”  
Bala-Tik regarded him with a frown between his brows. “How much?”  
“Name your terms.”  
Bala-Tik leaned back slowly, considering. Somewhere over his left shoulder, Hux sensed Ren shift slightly.   
_ Carise Sindian_. The sound of Ren’s voice was low and clear in Hux’s mind. _Does the name mean anything to you? _  
Hux checked his surprise before it could show on his face. _Yes. We were in Academy together. Why? _  
_ She’s hired the Guavians to collect information, for a substantial sum. They’re unlikely to negotiate based on money_. Ren paused. Hux could feel Ren reaching past him, sifting through Bala-Tik’s thoughts as easily as sand.  
Ren’s voice murmured, _There’s something more..._  
“I want to know what’s on that probe,” Bala-Tik said, unconscious of the secondary conversation in which he was taking part. “That, and our standard fee of one hundred thousand.”  
Hux swirled his drink pensively. “Strange,” he said, “that a man of your reputation would be interested in such inconsequential details, considering what else we have to offer—weapons, ships, far greater amounts of money...”   
“Money’s not what I’m after,” Bala-Tik answered curtly.  
“No? Then what brought you here, Bala-Tik? Curiosity? Boredom? If that’s the case, then I won’t further waste my time—”   
“No,” Bala-Tik broke in, frustrated. Hux arched a brow coolly. “No, I’m…”  
Bala-Tik went on but Ren’s voice spoke over him. _She’s taken control of the Guavians._  
Hux resisted the impulse to turn around and face Ren. _What?_  
_ Sindian_. _ She’s manipulated Bala-Tik and his men to obey her every order_. He paused. _ Bala-Tik resents this_.  
Hux weighed Ren’s words, turning them over in his mind. He bought a few seconds with another sip of his drink.  
“Tell me, Bala-Tik,” he said slowly. “How much did she offer you to retrieve such information?”  
Bala-Tik’s eyes went wide, and Hux suppressed a smirk.   
“As far as business alliances go, I’m not sure that a Senator of the New Republic is a wise choice,” Hux said. “And especially not that one.”  
Hux watched, pleased, as Bala-Tik’s mouth worked twice without making a sound. Finally he extricated himself from Hux’s gaze to turn to his guards. _“Fuirich a-muigh,”_ he barked over his shoulder.  
The two guards turned and walked wordlessly past Hux out of the room. Hux straightened as he watched them go.  
“Ren,” Hux said, glancing briefly at him, “you’re free to leave as well.”  
Hux pressed a swift _thank you_ into Ren’s mind. He made no reply, but Hux felt his message connect and knew that he had been understood. Ren followed behind the two Guavians, and Hux was left alone with Bala-Tik.  
He was staring at Hux fervently. “What do you know?” he said.  
“I know that Carise Sindian has never hesitated to abandon her word as quickly as she gives it and that she has a special talent for using others for her own gain—but I’m sure you’ve realized that already.” He let his voice drop to a conspiratorial murmur. “Whatever she’s paying you, I’m quite sure it isn’t worth losing your authority over your own men. Isn’t that right?”  
Bala-Tik had gone suddenly pale. “How?” he said hoarsely.  
“Senator Sindian has been desperate for the attention of the First Order since the reformation of the Senate. This is not the first time that she has sought to ally herself with...nefarious organizations.”   
Bala-Tik remained silent. Hux topped off both of their glasses, then went on conversationally, “Do you know of the Amaxine Warriors?”  
Bala-Tik gave no answer.  
“They were a mercenary group similar to your own, led by Arliz Hadrassian, who accepted Sindian’s offer of weaponry and funding in exchange for their services. Sindian had them carry out a string of assassinations and then, once she had no further use of them, lured Hadrassian into a trap that would have led to her arrest by the Senate. Faced with a humiliating fate at the hands of the New Republic, Hadrassian took her own life to avoid capture.”  
Hux had paced languidly to the far side of the room as he spoke. He turned back towards Bala-Tik in time to see him downing the contents of his drink in a single swallow, his knuckles white around the glass.  
“Is that how you wish to meet your end, Bala-Tik?” Hux asked softly.  
Bala-Tik’s eyes flickered up to meet Hux’s. “I want nothing more to do with her,” he spat.  
Hux walked back towards him and set his glass on the table, delicately placing his fingertips on either side of it. “Then in the interest of your command as well as mine, I suggest you listen very carefully.” He leaned in and spoke with muted urgency. “See that the probe is destroyed. When she contacts you about the mission, as she undoubtedly will, you will relay that I wish to speak with her personally. A few days after that, Sindian will no longer be a concern. You will walk away with triple the amount she has offered you, as well as your authority over your men restored. Are we agreed?”  
Bala-Tik stared back at Hux for several long moments in silence. Finally he gave a short nod. “Agreed.”


	23. Chapter 23

“This map shows where it’s been in the last few months,” Finn said, tracing with his finger the thin line weaving between miniature planets and stars. “Just this one probe has mapped half the quadrant.”  
“This is pretty damn good evidence that they’re going to make a military move soon. Why else would they collect all this information, right?” Poe peered at Leia to gauge her reaction. “So what do you think? Do we bring this to the Senate?”  
Leia leaned back in her chair. “The last thing the Senate did was to officially ground all of our forces. So I’d say we’re probably better off not telling them.”  
Finn said, “They did _ what?” _ at the exact same time Poe said, “Those bastards.”  
“My sentiments exactly, Commander Dameron,” Leia said tiredly. “Maybe I can get them to overturn the mandate in a few months—”  
“A few _ months?”_ Poe repeated in disbelief. “So what, we’re supposed to sit around while the Order is out there collecting data on every corner of the galaxy?”  
“We will be doing something.” She let out a sigh. “I just haven’t figured out exactly what yet.”  
“But this new information from the probe,” Finn said. “If we brought that to the Senate—”  
“They would accuse me of making it up to get the Resistance reinstated,” Leia said flatly. “And that’s if they acknowledged it at all. All this time I’ve been telling them we need to be doing more to oppose the Order, and nothing I’ve said has made a dent. The probe won’t change that.”   
“What if there was more?” Poe said suddenly. He looked towards Finn. “You said there was a way to get from that probe into the whole network of First Order recon devices. Right?”  
“Right,” Finn said slowly, and then, catching on, he repeated with more energy, “Right. It has to be linked into the First Order system.”  
“BB-8 didn’t get all the way through the last layer of encryption. If he can bypass it, we’ll have information about their movements, their capabilities, their plans—everything. The Senate won’t be able to ignore that.”  
Leia didn’t answer immediately. “I’m not sure even that would convince them. But if there’s a chance that this will force the Senate to take action, and get the Resistance back in the air, then it’s worth a shot.” She glanced at BB-8. “You really think you can get through that encryption?”  
BB-8 chirped back something that sounded exactly like, _ Yes, ma’am! _ and bobbled enthusiastically.  
She gave a decisive nod. “All right. Go back to the probe and get everything you can from it. But,” she added, “don’t take any risks and clear out if there’s any sign that the Order is coming after the probe.”  
Poe and Finn exchanged glances and then rushed off in the direction of the hangar.

***

“Just to be on the safe side, we’ll come in a little farther away from Tagaros than last time,” Poe’s voice said through Finn’s headset. “That way, if anyone else is hanging around the probe, we won’t drop right on top of ‘em.”  
“Got it,” Finn answered, confirming the coordinates as they appeared on the navigation panel of his X-wing. “Ready when you are.”  
Finn’s senses had not quite caught up to themselves as they dropped out of hyperspace before Poe’s voice came through the comm line again, much more urgently than before: “Whoa—are you seeing this?”  
Finn stared at the scanner above the controls. It was picking up an energy signature almost big enough to be a battle-cruiser, although its shape wasn’t anything Finn recognized. Whatever it was, it was moving towards them fast. “Yeah. What am I seeing?”  
“I don’t know, but we probably shouldn’t hang around in the open until we figure it out. Follow me—we’ll duck into the debris of that moon.”  
Finn followed Poe as he zigzagged among the cratered hunks of rock suspended in the black. They found a piece of debris large enough to hide them both. As they looked on, the ship passed close enough for them to see the markings on its hull.   
“Wait…” Finn said slowly, squinting more closely at the ship’s red insignia. “I know them. That’s the Guavian Death Gang.”  
Poe sounded perplexed. “You know some people called the Guavian Death Gang?”  
“Well, no, I don’t _ know _ them. I know Han Solo owed them a lot of money.”  
“Who...what?”  
“It doesn’t matter. The point is, we don’t want to run into them.”  
“What is the Guavian Death Whoever doing way the hell out here? Are they looking for the probe?”  
“They’ve gotta be. If it’s valuable to us, it’s probably valuable to someone else.”  
“Who do they work for?”  
“The highest bidder. Could be anyone.”  
The ship was closing in on Tagaros. When it was too small to be seen through the cockpit window, Finn watched it on the energy scanner instead. “So you think they’re going to steal it, huh?” Poe said. “Maybe we can beat them to it.”  
“Are we looking at two different things? Your entire X-wing could fit into that ship’s blaster cannon.”  
“But we can’t just let them take off with the probe. General Organa needs it.”  
“General Organa told us not to take any risks. I’m pretty sure diving into cannon range of the Guavians would fall into that category.”  
“Just stay right here. Listen, I’m gonna come back around and we’ll jump out of here as soon as I get the probe, so be ready. Queue up the coordinates for base—”  
“Wait, hang on—”  
“Okay, here we go!”  
Poe’s X-wing hooked and dove, plunging into the atmosphere of Tagaros. Finn, without thinking, followed behind him.   
He watched as Poe hurtled towards the planet’s surface. His X-wing stole under the belly of the Guavian ship. Just as it passed out of sight, the maw of the ship’s blaster cannon began to glow blue.  
“Get out of there!” Finn shouted.  
The X-wing, dwarfed by the Guavian ship, emerged back into view, directly into the range of the cannon.  
“I’m almost there!”   
Finn pressed the side of his helmet, the earpiece digging into his head. “Forget the probe, they’re going to fire!”   
The cannon locked into place, its whole length now lit.   
_ “POE, MOVE!”_  
The comm line crackled as Poe let out a yell of frustration. He was within meters of the planet’s surface when the cannon fired. Poe jerked his X-wing and it rolled just barely out of the cannon beam, the jet of blue plasma singeing past the wings.  
The cannon reduced the entire hangar to a crater. The ground was scorched to black in a wide ring where the building had stood. As Poe righted his X-wing, his voice came through the comm line breathlessly. “Damn it. Let’s get out of here before those cannons recharge.”  
While Poe spoke, the Guavian ship started to turn. Its nose followed the trajectory of Poe’s X-wing, bringing it back in firing range. But the ship continued on, swinging straight past Poe.  
“What are they doing?” Poe asked tensely. The ship began to rise, slowly pulling away from where Poe hovered at the surface. “Why did they stop shooting at us?”  
Finn watched the ship pick up speed as it moved away from them. “They were never shooting at us,” he realized. “They came to destroy the probe.”  
By now, the ship had shrunk away to a silver smudge in the gray haze of the Tagaros sky. It hovered for a moment outside of the planet’s atmosphere, jolted forward, and then vanished in a blur. 


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just FYI, this was written before the name Armitage came out for canon Hux.

A small light blinked twice on the projector device, and then a life-size, blue-toned likeness of Sindian was standing opposite Hux in the conference room. The flickering lines of white static rendered her indistinct until the image resolved. She wore her hair pinned back from her face and a floor-length crimson gown, snaked through with vines of gold embroidery. It had been years since he had seen her, but Hux found the familiar rush of loathing at the sight of her entirely unabated.  
“Brendol,” she said warmly, a smile blooming across her painted lips. “You’re looking well.”  
“Lady Sindian,” Hux said cordially, and then tilted his head. “Ah, I heard about that unfortunate incident at the New Republic. It’s just Carise now, isn’t it?”  
Her smile did not move although her eyes narrowed perceptibly. “It was certainly a surprise to receive your invitation. I hear you’re quite busy these days. I have to wonder what you would want with a mere senator like me. Or did you just fancy a chat about old times?”  
Hux clasped his hands behind his back. “Not exactly, Carise. I contacted you because there’s been talk that you’ve shown some concern towards the activities of the First Order.”  
Sindian feigned pleasant surprise. “What would give you that impression?”  
“Well, you remember how word travels in places like Arkanis...and among a certain class of outposts here in the Outer Rim.”  
Sindian paused. “I can’t be blamed for a certain professional interest,” she said with a saccharine lilt in her voice.  
“Not at all. In fact, it’s why I asked to speak with you. The First Order also has a certain professional interest in you.”  
“In me? I’m not sure I know what you mean.”  
Hux took several steps towards the projection. “Let us speak frankly, Carise. Surely we owe each other that.”  
Sindian watched him approach, her brittle smile finally shifting into a guarded wariness.  
“I wanted to meet with you about a business proposition. It seems that we have an opening in the First Order. Intelligence operations.”  
Sindian’s head tilted as he spoke, a tress of ink-black hair spilling over the pleated shoulder of her gown. “And after all this time, you thought of me?”  
He gave a razor-thin smile. “It is, as you can imagine, a...delicate position to recruit for. I need someone I know and trust, someone who came up through the Academy just as I did and, of course, someone with loyalties to the ideas of the old Empire.” He arched an eyebrow. “Or has all your time in the Senate changed your ways?”  
Sindian gave a short laugh. “Hardly, Brendol,” she said. “In fact, the Senate has changed to suit me quite nicely. The New Republic is fractured beyond any hope of repair and will collapse at the slightest push in the right direction.”  
“With you at its center, I wouldn’t expect any less.”  
“Can you blame me? You know I’ve always loved such games. It was simple to turn the Senate against the Resistance, and now they have begun to turn on themselves. The fools at the New Republic have been quite accommodating in allowing me to use the Senate for my own agenda—which has always been based on Imperial doctrine.”  
“That’s certainly reassuring to hear,” Hux said. He went on briskly, “Then what do you think of my proposition? If rumors are true, you’ve been interested in declaring public allegiance to the First Order for some time. In exchange for which we can offer the full breadth of our resources towards your protection.” He regarded her closely and when she did not answer, he continued, “Well, Carise?”  
Sindian was silent for another moment, seeming to calculate Hux with a flicker of her eyes. Then the glossy artificial smile returned to her face and she said, “You’ve caught me. That has always been my goal. It would be an honor to serve the First Order—and you, General Hux.” She offered a simper that was meant to be modest. “I did always believe that we’d end up working together, one way or another. But I have to admit, I was beginning to worry that you would never ask.”  
A smile unfolded very slowly across Hux’s face. “Just a matter of waiting for the opportune moment, Carise,” he said softly. “I’ll send along further details of your assignment—inconspicuously, of course—in the coming days.”  
“I certainly look forward to it, Brendol,” Sindian purred. She began to turn away and her image guttered briefly, then vanished in a final white flicker of static.   
Hux swept out of the room and was met by Ren, who, inexplicably, was standing outside the door. He said, rather conversationally, “Weren’t you taught that it’s rude to eavesdrop?”   
“Your solution was to bring her into the Order?" Ren asked incredulously. “Exactly what she’s been waiting for you to do?”   
Hux laughed. Ignoring Ren, he turned to the officers standing nearby and said, “Lieutenant, you’ll find that the recording of our conversation has already been sent to the core database. Have a broken encryption placed on it but ensure that the recording is transmittable, and easily replicated.” He turned to the other officer. “Once that is done, have a holoprojector quietly delivered to one of our affiliate organizations at Loera Outpost. Inform your contact that the file was stolen by one of Sindian’s enemies within the Senate, and that they are keen for the news to travel quickly. Pay them 50,000 credits with the expectation that the recording will be in the New Republic’s hands in less than two days.”   
Hux turned back to Ren, the corner of his mouth curled into a sneer. “By that time,” he said, “every star system in the galaxy will have heard Senator Sindian announcing what an honor it would be to serve the First Order.”


	25. Chapter 25

“What now?”  
Poe had his chin propped up on his fist. Finn was next to him, both of them seated in a dingy war room while Leia stood at the head of the table.  
“We still don’t have enough to go to the Senate,” Poe continued. “We’re right back where we started.”  
“Or worse off,” Finn said darkly. “I bet the Order is going to be watching those probes a lot more carefully now.”  
“Any luck finding out more from the original data?” Leia asked Finn.  
He gave a defeated shrug. “Not much,” he said. “BB-8 had already unscrambled all the important stuff. But I was looking at the map of the probe’s route again—it’s been through Glyfada, Atenai, Rakan. Everywhere the Resistance has had even a little bit of a presence in the last few months.”  
“So they’re definitely looking for us,” Poe surmised.  
“And it looks like they’re closing in.” Finn looked to Leia. “Whatever we’re going to do next, we better do it fast.”  
Before Leia could answer, Lieutenant Connix burst into the room. “General—there you are. We’ve interrupted a transmission from Loera Outpost.” She held out a hand, a holoprojector in her palm. “You’re going to want to see this.”  
With a frown, Leia took the device and set it in the center of the table. A beam of blue light shot up from the projector and transmuted into the form of a woman, at first too distorted to recognize. The image resolved bit by bit, although it remained grainy and interrupted by warm crackles of static. It had obviously been through a slew of low-quality holoprojectors before it arrived on this one.   
A male voice, soft and secretive, began to speak from somewhere beyond the holo’s visual range: _“...loyalties...to the old Empire. In exchange for which—resources towards your protection. Well—Carise?”_   
The static diminished and the recording finally became clearer. “That—has always been my goal. It would be an honor to serve the First Order, and you, General Hux.”  
Leia’s blood ran cold.   
“Sindian,” she hissed. “That little rat.” She turned back to Connix. “Has this reached Coruscant yet?”  
“The New Republic has already launched their investigation. Arkanian representation has been suspended indefinitely.” Connix shook her head. “By the sound of the reports from Elizeth, Arkanis will secede before the next Senate session.”  
Finn was asking Connix more questions but Leia barely heard them, her eyes fixed on the frozen image of Sindian hovering above the table.   
“General, what’s our move?” Poe asked.  
She snapped her gaze back to him. “The Senate won’t survive the secession of Arkanis. The First Order is coming after us and the New Republic isn’t going to be around to stop them.” She stood abruptly, a new haste in her movements. “Get everyone ready to leave. We need to disappear.”


	26. Chapter 26

The broadcast of Sindian’s recording had worked even better than Hux could have anticipated. In the resulting panic, Arkanian representation was promptly barred from the Senate floor. Balking at this treatment, the planet had formally seceded from the New Republic within days. Weaker worlds that feared the chaos of the Senate joined the Arkanian secession, choosing neutrality over the crumbling New Republic. Others began to take notice of the stability of the First Order’s growing dominion and outright announced their allegiance to the new empire.   
Even with Arkanis gone, suspicion and distrust had spread through the remaining Senators like a plague. Anyone who was known to associate with Senator Sindian—which, thanks to Sindian’s incessant political dealings, included representatives of nearly every Centrist planet in the Core—was regarded as a potential co-conspirator and a traitor. Some of them had been removed from their political post without so much as a trial, including several people that Hux could never have hoped to convince to betray the New Republic even if he’d tried. There had been no sign of Sindian herself since the day the recording was released.  
Still, it felt like the closer they drew to the last days of the war, the longer everything seemed to drag on. The Arkanian secession had been nearly two months ago. The First Order was still cutting a steady path through the Outer Rim, folding in a growing assemblage of planets under the First Order banner, despite the continued assurance of Hux’s critics that what they were doing was impossible. The Resistance had vanished without a trace, and Hux was increasingly certain that they would not conveniently reappear until the First Order forced them to.  
Once they secured their hold on the Outer Rim, their strategy would have to change. Disconcertingly, Hux found himself unsure exactly what form that would take. No clear path forward had presented itself, and Hux was running out of time to find one.  
He had been at his desk ever since his shift ended that evening. He expected to be there for hours yet, which was why the uncharacteristically soft knock at Hux’s door annoyed him so much.  
“No, Ren,” he said flatly. “I’ve got more important things to deal with tonight than you.”  
There was no immediate answer. The light above the door stayed on, indicating that someone was still standing there.  
“I said no,” Hux repeated more sharply, raising his eyes to the light above the door as if addressing it directly.   
The silence went on for so long that Hux had a brief moment of doubt that it really was Ren standing there, although by now he could always recognize Ren’s presence well before he actually saw him. Then, finally, Ren’s voice, just as flat as Hux’s but much softer: “Please.”  
Hux stared at the light above the door, so thoroughly caught off-guard that he couldn’t give a response.   
Ren’s voice continued, now a stiff, awkward mumble: “You can keep working. I won’t talk to you.”  
He half-expected Ren to give up and walk away while he continued to stare blankly. But he didn’t. He just stood there, waiting, until Hux pressed the button along the side of his desk and the door slid open.  
Ren was looking straight ahead, his mouth twitching slightly. Hux had turned his gaze back to his datapad before Ren’s eyes could flicker towards him.  
“Go on, then,” Hux said brusquely, tilting his head towards the bed without lifting his eyes. Ren took a few halting steps into the room. There was the familiar rustling of fabric as Ren slid off his tunic and boots, then the mattress’s creak as he arranged himself on the bed.  
Without another word, Hux went back to work. It demanded so much of his attention that he quickly forgot Ren was there at all, at least for the first hour or so. Then, very gradually, Hux became aware that Ren was listening to his thoughts—not in any direct way as far as Hux could tell, but hovering unobtrusively at a distance, following along with the swirl and pulse of them without taking any note of the details. Ren seemed conscientious about staying quiet enough not to interfere. Hux suspected he could’ve shut him out and Ren would have left without protest. But it was easy enough to ignore him, so Hux did.  
Ren was still awake and still listening when Hux leaned back in his chair, scrubbed at his eyes, and stood from his desk. He went to change into nightclothes, retrieved his datapad from the desk, and then settled himself on the bed.  
Ren gave no reaction to any of this. Nonetheless, Hux felt calmness deepen from where Ren lingered at the edges of Hux’s mind.  
It was very late when Hux finally laid the datapad aside. Almost as soon as he turned off the light and slid under the covers, facing away from Ren, he felt a hesitant touch at his shoulder.  
Hux moved backwards so that he was laying alongside Ren. He caught the hand that had touched his shoulder and pulled it across his waist. Ren was rigid for a few moments before Hux felt him relax, pulling Hux more closely against him, bringing his chest to Hux’s back. Very gently, Ren pressed his face to the back of Hux’s neck and drew in a steadying breath.   
Once he felt Ren’s hovering presence finally fall into the slower rhythm of sleep, Hux let himself fall asleep too. 


	27. Chapter 27

“Some Inner Rim worlds still resist us. Why not launch attacks on a few of them and remind them what the First Order is capable of?” argued Loque. “Show the ones that didn’t put up a fight that they made the right decision.”  
“We are still negotiating with them,” said Hollis, frustrated. “At this point, they must not fear us. We need them to fear their crumbling Republic so that they will join us.”  
“Precisely,” said Hux. “For now, these worlds have the choice of joining Arkanis as an independent state, allying with us, or dying with the New Republic.”  
Loque appeared skeptical. “Then what about the Resistance?”  
“What _ about _ the Resistance?” Tebessa said tiredly.  
“They’ve been quiet for months. I don’t trust it. If the New Republic is as good as dead, why don’t we focus on destroying the Resistance once and for all?”  
Olmyn spoke up. “Have you lost sight of our goal? We are establishing the foundation of our government, not wasting time with petty squabbles.”  
Loque sneered at him. “As long as Princess Leia is out there, we’re not done. She’s still biding her time to make a move on us. If we don’t stop her, she’ll be inspiring rebellions on each of the worlds we’ve overtaken.”   
“What would certainly inspire rebellion, Commander Loque,” Hux broke in, “is making a martyr of General Organa.”  
Loque scowled, but could not disagree. He sank back into his seat without another word.   
Hux went on, “The Resistance is in hiding, nothing more. They cannot afford to step out and oppose us, lest they be imprisoned by the New Republic. When the time is right, we will find them and we will destroy them. But in the meanwhile, we need to decide on our route into the Core. As I proposed before, the Kasatkan Hyperlane is the most logical ingress towards Coruscant—”  
“That will take us through some of the old Republic holdouts from the last war,” Rhys said. “You’ll never get halfway to Rivulon.” Several others sounded their agreement.  
The conference dragged on for hours with no resolution in sight. When Hux finally dismissed them, they were more divided than they’d been when they started.   
Hux lingered after everyone else had gone. He looked out across the silent table tiredly, wondering what it would take to make any progress, wondering how much time he had left.   
A mechanical chirp rose from his datapad. He stirred and glanced down in time to see a message flash across the screen: “Leader Snoke requests your presence.”


	28. Chapter 28

Kylo had barely finished knocking on Hux’s door before he heard Hux’s reply: “I’m busy, Ren.” His voice was clipped and cold, more so than usual. Kylo hesitated, something about Hux’s tone distracting him from the reason he’d come.  
“Let me in,” Kylo said, stubbornly.  
“I’ve just told you I’m busy.”  
There was a severity in the way Hux spoke that he hadn’t heard in a long while. He thought about just walking away, but that strange note in Hux’s voice held him there.  
He waved his hand impatiently, ignoring the metallic squall of protest, and the door dragged itself open.   
Hux was sitting at his desk. He turned away from Kylo as he stepped into Hux’s quarters, but not quickly enough. Kylo caught a brief glimpse of Hux’s nose bleeding freely into a wad of gauze that he was holding against his face.  
Kylo took several paces towards him. Hux turned his face slowly back to him, his mouth set in a thin line. “Do you often invite yourself into other people’s quarters, or is that a privilege you reserve for me?”  
“What happened to you?” Kylo asked quietly.  
He bristled. “Nothing.”  
“Hux—”  
“Leave. I’m not interested in humoring you today.”  
“Let me heal it.”  
Hux’s scowl deepened. “It’s not worth healing.”  
“It looks broken.”  
“So I’ll have a med droid set it.”  
“Please.” Kylo lifted his hand, reaching towards Hux.   
Hux jerked away. “It was our gracious Supreme Leader, Ren, in case you truly haven’t pieced that together.”  
Kylo faltered, his hand frozen in place. “What?”  
“Snoke,” Hux snapped, “with his preferred method of constructive criticism. We both know you won’t dare undo anything he does, so I’ll spare you having to retract your offer. In exchange, kindly get out of my chambers.”  
Kylo said nothing. Hux returned his attention to his desk but Kylo continued to stare at him, his breathing suddenly too shallow, his hand still poised outward.  
Sensing his gaze, Hux raised his eyes towards him, disbelieving.  
Kylo started, “I could…”  
“No,” Hux interrupted harshly. “You couldn’t.”  
Kylo’s fingers twitched. He looked back at Hux, his eyes wide.  
“What are you doing?” Hux demanded, his voice barely above a whisper. He shook his head. “You know that you can’t.”  
Abruptly, Kylo dropped his hand to his side. Hux’s stare bored into him, and Kylo felt a sudden upwelling of panic in his chest. Without another word, Kylo fled Hux’s quarters.

***

Three days went by before Hux realized that, not only had Ren failed to appear at his door again, Hux had not seen him at all. Even with almost no destructive interruptions these days, Hux could still count on their paths crossing often, either in the Holochamber or in the command wing.   
On the fourth day, there was still no sign of Ren. As Hux made his usual rounds on the bridge that morning, he got a brief report from Lieutenant Umano—nothing of interest except some encouraging pro-First Order chatter from Linnea and a few other planets along the Kasatkan Hyperlane—then paused just before he started to walk away.  
“Lieutenant, have you had any word from Kylo Ren lately?”  
Umano looked up at him with a question in her eyes. “Kylo Ren left the _ Finalizer _ some days ago, sir. It seemed he’d been sent somewhere.”  
“A mission from Leader Snoke?”  
“I’m not sure, General.”  
Hux was quiet for a few moments. For the first time in the last four days, he focused his attention and listened for Ren. Somewhat hesitantly, he reached out through their bond for some trace of him, some evidence that Umano was wrong and Ren was only locked away in his quarters.  
Nothing. Silence. The channel between them was completely, uncomfortably still. Now that he was paying attention to it, the silence in his mind felt obvious, pervasive.   
Hux returned his attention to Umano, who was looking at him curiously. “How long will he be gone?”  
“He didn’t say. But his ship was equipped with enough fuel and supplies for several months.” Umano hesitated. “If you’d like, sir, I can check in with the hangar bridge in case there’s a registered itinerary—”  
“That won’t be necessary. Thank you, Lieutenant.”  
Hux moved on, checking in with the remaining crew members on the bridge. He listened to the reports and messages from the other capital ships, trying to ignore Ren’s suddenly imposing absence.


	29. Chapter 29

When Kylo’s shuttle touched down between the jagged black rock spires of Demarest, Ghodous Ren was there to meet him. He did not wait for the cloud of dust to settle before he strode forward, watching Kylo as he disembarked from the causeway to the silver-black surface of the planet.  
“Master Kylo,” Ghodous said, his sharp green eyes fixed on him unblinkingly. “Welcome. We have been waiting for you.”  
Kylo spared him a brief glance. “Are the others here?”  
“All of us who are coming.”  
Kylo had been surveying the barren landscape of the valley. At this, he looked back to Ghodous. “Mihalis?”  
“He remains with Leader Snoke.” Ghodous scrutinized him. “The Supreme Leader has told you what lies ahead?”  
“The holocron of a Sith master.”  
Ghodous gave a thin smile. “More than the holocron will be waiting for us, Master Kylo. There is a reason I did not find it until now. The holocron is well hidden within the catacombs, and well protected. It will take the strength of all of us to retrieve it.”  
Kylo turned from him coldly. “Then I hope we all remember our place. How soon can we leave?”  
“Whenever you wish. But night will fall soon. I suggest we wait for daybreak tomorrow.”  
Kylo gave a stiff nod. “Tomorrow at daybreak. Tell the others.”  
“Yes, Master Kylo.” Ghodous’s eyes rested on him steadily.  
Kylo pivoted and returned to his shuttle, retracting the causeway behind him.

***

All four of the Ren paused just short of the entrance to the catacombs. Kylo was at the front. Just behind him was Ghodous, his expression inscrutable as it always was; Irizar, his hair pulled back from his angular, sharp face to reveal a long scar across the top of one ear; and Vaelys, the ragged hem of her dress touching the tops of her boots, her dark, wild hair tossed around her face by the wind.  
The tombs were carved into a mountain of black volcanic rock, surrounded by towering jagged formations of obsidian that glinted in the gray sunlight. The ruins looked as though they had been decaying for hundreds of centuries, but they did not feel empty.   
Impatient and unsettled by the interminable silence of this desolate planet, Kylo sent out a shockwave of Force energy into the mountain.  
Ghodous glanced at him. “I am not sure it is wise to announce our presence that way, Master Kylo,” he cautioned.  
Kylo stepped past him, his eyes fixed on the thick shadows inside the ruins. “It’s known about us since we arrived.”  
Whatever was watching them from inside the tombs didn’t react to Kylo’s provocation. With the other Ren following behind him, he walked under the stone archway that led into the mountain.  
As Kylo’s eyes started to adjust to the gloom inside the catacombs, he could just make out a thin line set into the wall at about eye-level. It showed the slightest sheen in the minute amount of light.   
Kylo ignited his saber, the sound echoing into the blackness ahead of them and then fading away. He touched the blade to the channel filled with dedlanite resin. It caught instantly with an angry fizzle that matched Kylo’s saber and raced off into the dark, showing a path in amber flame. Kylo started to follow it, retracting the blade of his saber but keeping the hilt in his hand.  
In the sputtering light, Kylo could see runes on the slick stone walls. The inscriptions seemed to cover nearly every square inch of space, the characters implausibly small. It didn’t seem possible that it all could have been carved by hand.  
They turned a corner and the narrow hallway opened into an antechamber. The resin light branched from a single line into a complex tree that snaked across the walls, washing the space in flickering, rust-colored light. Directly opposite them stood a door, the only vertical surface not marked with lines of flame.   
“This will be the entrance to the inner sanctum,” Vaelys breathed. “Where the most precious relics have been hidden.”  
She stepped up alongside Kylo and then past him, reaching towards the door. As soon as she touched it, the flames in the antechamber guttered and then flickered away.  
_ I am the Gatekeeper of the Cybelle Shrine. _ Kylo heard the spirit’s voice in his head the same way he heard Snoke’s: not as if he were hearing the voice come from somewhere else but as if it were embedded in his own mind. _I protect this place from intruders like you._  
Irizar drew his saber, its dark red light blazing in front of him. Vaelys started to call out a warning to him, but before she could, the saber’s blade winked out and the hilt was torn from Irizar’s hand. It went skittering away into the shadows.  
_ Thieves, _ the voice hissed. _Just like the thieves who have come here before you. You will pay the same price they paid._  
Kylo felt the presence begin to weave into his mind, deftly avoiding his efforts to block it out. When it had first spoken, he knew instinctively that all of the other Ren could hear it too; now, when he heard it again, he knew that the spirit was speaking only to him.   
_ And you, Kylo Ren, _ the voice whispered. _What is it that you could not stand to lose?_  
Memories flickered by—the trek through the valley to the shrine, the long journey from the _Finalizer_ to Demarest, the meeting where Snoke had told Kylo that he would be leaving. The spirit skimmed past these memories, disregarding the resentment and fear that colored them.  
Around him, the other Ren were still trying to fight their way into the shrine. Kylo could still see them, but found himself immobilized as the spirit reached deeper into his mind—he saw a flash of intelligent, silver-blue eyes, the sweep of a gray coat. For the first time, the spirit paused, lingering on the memory. Kylo struggled to wrest his thoughts away from it, to no effect. The image of Hux grew clearer, and then, little by little, it started to pull away. He could feel the memories leaving him, and the feelings of safety and warmth that went with them.  
In desperation, he reached for the Light and let himself fall into it, half-expecting it would not be there to catch him. But it was there—more of it than he’d dared to feel in years, more than he thought he still could. The shock of its sudden, all-consuming presence crashed through him. It felt like the thing he had summoned would break him open from within.  
Still, the memories were retreating.  
Kylo threw his hand out in front of him. The Light flooded outwards in a blinding burst of white-gold.  
The Sith spirit screamed, its pain resonating into Kylo’s core. He clung to the Light, pulling more of it towards him, numbing swiftly to the pain of so much of it coursing through him. The more he poured into his defense against the Sith spirit, the less control over it he had. He could feel his grasp on consciousness start to slip.  
Something shifted. Distantly, Kylo realized that there was another presence alongside him. The white-gold radiance that filled the shrine grew brighter. The Sith spirit, at last, disentangled itself from Kylo’s mind, leaving his memories intact.   
With a final, piercing scream, the spirit retreated somewhere deeper into the mountain, leaving a hollow silence.  
Kylo barely had time to let go of the Light before it left him. He felt utterly drained once it was gone, in the few moments before the familiar pulse of darkness came rushing back in its place.  
The brilliance that had filled the chamber died out. Once again the space was lit only by the sparse flicker of the resin channels in the rock.   
He turned slowly towards the other Ren. They were all staring at him—Irizar with unbridled scorn, Vaelys with something approaching reverence. Ghodous looked at him intently without any expression at all.  
“A Wall of Light,” Ghodous said slowly. “I would not have thought to try that.”  
Kylo remembered, then, that Ghodous’s father had been captured and imprisoned in the Empire’s Project Harvester on suspicions of Jedi teachings. Ghodous, of course, had been the other presence in the Light as Kylo struggled to control it.  
He must have seen everything.  
Kylo turned from him again, fighting to control the shaking of his breath. Behind him, Vaelys asked softly, “How did you know it would work, Master Kylo?”   
He didn’t answer, pinching his eyes shut with his face turned away from them, struggling to clamp down on the waves of pain that the Light had left in its wake.   
“He didn’t,” Irizar sneered, “He just chose the Light.”  
Kylo clenched his jaw and turned to face Irizar. “Sith guardians are easily driven back by even simple Light techniques, like that one,” he snapped. From the corner of his eye, he saw Ghodous raise a brow. It wasn’t a simple technique and Ghodous must have known it, but he said nothing. “You’re lucky Ghodous and I knew that, or you would still be brandishing your lightsaber at a voice in the walls.” Irizar’s saber hilt had landed near Kylo and he kicked it back towards Irizar. It stopped just short of him, spinning at his feet.  
Vaelys was tracing her fingertips over the inhumanly small writing on the rock. “These must be the memories,” she said softly. “The ones the Gatekeeper has taken.” She turned to look at Kylo over her shoulder, her expression concerned. “Did the spirit take anything from you, Master Kylo?”  
Ghodous was still watching him, perfectly still, his face unreadable.   
“Let’s finish this,” Kylo snarled.   
The spirit of the Sith must have kept the door to the sanctum intact. As the spirit fled into the darker recesses of the catacombs, a rupture had opened down the length of the door.   
Kylo lifted his hand and, doing his best not to show how much effort it cost him, threw out a pulse of Force energy, violent and imprecise. The door shattered inwards, sending rocks and dust cascading into the shrine. With the eyes of the Ren still on him, he stepped forward into the sanctum.


	30. Chapter 30

On Jakku, Rey had never, in almost thirteen years, lost track of the passing time. But here on Ahch-To, the days had already started to blur together.  
They all started the same way: she woke with the sunrise and found Luke before he left for the temple on the far side of the island. He never woke her or waited for her; if she was late, he would leave without her. He spent the mornings poring over texts, most of which she could not read. He occasionally sent her to retrieve a manuscript from another room or building, with no particular explanation as to what she was looking for or why.   
In the afternoons, if she was lucky, he went to a rocky outcropping above the sea to meditate. That was the only time that Luke paid any particular attention to Rey, so she readily completed any chores he assigned her if it meant they would get to the outcropping more quickly.  
Once there, they sat opposite each other on the smooth, flat stones at the top of the cliff, the constant churn of the waves sounding beneath them. He would ask her questions about what he’d taught her—Jedi doctrine, the feats and accomplishments of ancient masters, events from what Luke referred to as the golden age of the galaxy. He’d taught her meditation exercises to help improve her connection to the Force, which she practiced often but seemed to improve little. Still, Rey worked to follow Luke’s instructions when she meditated with him, controlling her breathing, carefully emptying her mind of all but the sound of the Force.   
She couldn’t help but feel that eventually, Luke would simply heave a tired sigh and tell her it had all been for nothing, that she couldn’t be taught after all.  
As the monotony of her days dragged on, Rey started to feel that perhaps this wasn’t the worst thing that could happen. After all, there was still a war going on, as far as she knew. Even if she turned out not to be a prodigy with the Force after all, surely she could still help the Resistance somehow. And almost anything seemed like it would be more helpful than this.  
The mornings were much colder and darker now than when she had first arrived on Ahch-To. One of these foggy gray mornings started normally, with Rey following behind Luke to the temple. When they crested the last hill above the crumbling stone structures, Luke turned to her and said, “I don’t need your help here today.”  
Rey felt a wash of relief. She had begun to find the interior of the temple unaccountably disturbing, and she spent most of her mornings fidgety and eager to be back out under the sky. “Should I meet you at the overlook when you’re finished?”  
“No. There will be no lesson today.”  
Luke had already started to walk away, leaving Rey behind on the hilltop. She stared after him. “Why not?” she said.  
He gave no answer, the gray of his cloak already beginning to fade into the gathering mist.   
“Have I done something wrong?” she called after him, her voice betraying her frustration.  
“Not yet,” Luke said levelly, then drew up his hood and quickened his pace until he reached the dark maw of the temple’s entryway.  
Rey watched him go, then turned slowly and walked back to her hut on the other side of the island.  
Inside, she took off her cloak and tossed it aside with an annoyed huff. It missed the hook on the wall, and when she bent to pick it up, a dull glimmer in the corner caught her eye. She stared at it blankly until she finally recognized its shape: the holocron from the temple.  
Rey picked it up carefully, letting its weight rest in her palm. She found herself listening to it, and, inexplicably, she felt the same, almost imperceptible pulse that she’d felt when she first held it. The same faint thrum in the Force that had made her so certain that it still had some life.  
Her fingers closed decisively around the holocron. There was something there. She was sure of it.  
She would prove it to Luke.

  
  
  


***

  
  
  


Luke’s overlook was wind-blasted and exposed, framed by only a few scraggly salt-crusted shrubs. When Rey meditated on her own, she preferred a shaded grove where a narrow stream wended its way through the oldest trees on the island. The sea was still visible in the distance, and she found its presence calming, a comforting image from her childhood dreams.   
She sat down cross-legged in the middle of the clearing, balanced the holocron on her hand, and closed her eyes.


	31. Chapter 31

The sanctum was untouched. Ghodous found another resin trail beside the entrance and touched his lightsaber to it. The flame raced around the chamber, casting them all in flickering amber light.  
“There’s nothing here,” Irizar growled.   
The chamber was almost entirely empty, except for an intricate obsidian carving set into the center of the floor. Kylo approached it and Ghodous stepped up behind him, while Vaelys and Irizar remained near the entrance. Kylo studied it closely, then knelt and touched his fingertips to the surface of the stone. He stepped back and lifted his hand. With a trembling shudder, the pedestal began to rise.  
As it grew upward, it became apparent that most of its structure had been hidden. By the time Kylo could feel no more length beneath the ground, the column towered above them.  
The pillar was ridged with small hollows carved into the stone, each one filled with jewels, scrolls, and other valuables. Kylo ignored them. In the very last ridge, now eye-level with Kylo, a small pyramidal holocron, pulsating with a blood-red glow, glinted against the black rock.  
“Well done, Master Kylo,” Ghodous remarked.  
Kylo reached forward and closed his hand around it. As soon as he did, the interior of the shrine fell away.  
He was blinking into tree-filtered sunlight. In the distance, a sliver of blue water. The briny smell of ocean and the cold prick of fog.  
Somewhere, distantly, a feeling of paralyzing fear.  
Kylo tried to focus on the shrine, where he still stood in front of the pillar, his hand locked around the holocron. He could see his own outstretched hand but he could see the island too, one overlaid against the other.  
The fear was in his own mind, but was not his. The initial overwhelmed confusion of the other presence gave way abruptly to a fierce, violent determination to get away from him, to survive.  
He recognized her then. _“You,”_ he snarled. He seized onto Rey’s presence in his mind, pinning her there as she tried to tear away from him. His view of the island careened at a dizzying angle; she’d fallen to the ground as she tried to scramble away from her holocron, now lying on the grass in front of her.   
With his whole will focused on keeping Rey trapped in his mind, Kylo kept his eyes fixed forward as he hissed to Vaelys, _“Find her.”_  
Without hesitation, Vaelys laid her fingertips against Kylo’s temple, and her eyes fluttered closed. Rey’s fear reverberated sharply into Kylo’s mind as Vaelys drew near her.  
“She is on an ancient world, rich in wisdom,” Vaelys recounted. “She is alone now, but there is another powerful connection to the Force near.”  
Kylo felt Vaelys closing in on Rey. She was almost there, the name of the place and the way to get there just barely out of reach—Vaelys moved to cover the last distance between her mind and Rey’s, so close that the answer felt like something Kylo himself had only just forgotten—  
There was a brief moment in which all of them felt suspended, each one frozen just out of the reach of the other. Then Rey reached into the Light.  
Kylo let out a hiss of pain, struggling to keep his grasp on her. Finally, with a violent shove, she wrenched herself free.  
The island—the wetness of the air and the distant, muted crash of waves—vanished. The dim, suddenly claustrophobic interior of the shrine surged up around him. He barely caught himself from falling, steadying himself on the stone column. Vaelys reached for him as if to catch him by the elbow but he jerked away. “She is with Skywalker,” he breathed harshly.   
“Your scavenger,” Irizar said slowly, with dawning comprehension.  
Kylo rounded on him. “We’re going after her.”  
“And how would we do that, Master Kylo?” he asked in a drawl. “Did you find out where she is?”  
“I can find her again, using the connection between the holocrons—”  
“To what end?” Irizar snapped. “Leader Snoke sent us to acquire this holocron. We have done our task. Why delay our return over a false vision?”  
“The vision was not false,” Vaelys interjected. “I felt Rey as if she were near.”  
“She is none of our concern.”  
“She is the reason we are here in the first place,” Kylo snarled. “Leader Snoke wants Skywalker destroyed above all. If you want to explain to Leader Snoke why you let them slip through our fingers, then go ahead. Return. I will destroy what is left of the Jedi and you can stay out of the way while I do it.”  
Irizar held Kylo’s gaze. His mouth curled into a sneer. “Find us a heading, Master Kylo,” he said softly, “and I’ll follow your command.”  
Kylo straightened up and stashed the holocron in his robes, then brushed past Irizar and out of the shrine.


	32. Chapter 32

Rey made her way to the valley, listening for Luke’s presence and finding him easily. Her knuckles were white around the cube in her palm as she burst into the temple.  
“Master Skywalker,” she called out into the gloom. “Master Skywalker, please, something’s happened—”  
He appeared from around a corner, a deep scowl between his brows. “You know I’m not to be disturbed while I’m working here.”  
“It’s Kylo Ren,” she said breathlessly. She held out the holocron. “I was meditating with it and somehow it connected us. He saw me. And now they’re coming here.”  
Very slowly, Luke reached out and took the holocron from her. He fixed her with a cold, incalculable gaze. “Who is coming here?”   
“I don’t know,” Rey said desperately. “There are others with him. I think they were the other Knights of Ren.” She suppressed a shudder as she remembered the rage that had crashed from Kylo’s mind into hers. “He’s going to kill me,” she whispered. “He’ll kill us both.”  
Luke studied her face, then the holocron. He was silent for a long time, until Rey finally started, “I know I should have gotten rid of it when you told me to—”  
“Yes. You should have.” Luke’s voice was dark. He closed his hand around the holocron. “Tell me exactly what happened.”  
“He was just there, suddenly, in my mind, and I was in his. I could see where he was.”  
“Where?”  
She shook her head and swallowed. “It was dark, and cold. It felt like a tomb. There was a pillar in front of him, and that’s where his holocron was.”  
“His holocron?”  
Rey hesitated. “He held one too, but it was different than mine. I tried to get away but he trapped me in his mind, and then he sent one of the other Ren into the connection. But I escaped before she reached me.”  
“Do they know the name of this planet or how to find it?”  
“No.”   
Luke let out a slow breath and his face softened. He looked at her, for the first time she could remember, with something like kindness. “He will try to use the connection between the holocrons again. I will do what I can to keep them away.”  
Rey nodded, trying to feel comforted. “What should I do?”  
“Stay here. I will find you and tell you if we need to leave this place.”  
Without another word, Luke strode away with the holocron and left the temple.


	33. Chapter 33

The holocron was silent for a long time. Kylo was stubbornly rooted to the windy mountain peak where he’d sat for hours now, trying to find a way back into the connection, with nothing for his efforts but a fierce headache building at his temples.  
He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and tried again.  
He knew as soon as he resumed his meditation that something was different. The holocron was awake now, its unintelligible murmurs creating gentle ripples in the Force. Someone, Kylo was certain, was holding the other holocron.  
He focused deeply, letting himself be submerged in its energy. Then he let go of his mooring on Demarest and allowed himself to be swept away.  
This time, prepared for it, Kylo felt himself hurtling across a vast distance and then coming to a jarring halt. The sound of Demarest’s wind had vanished. There was birdsong, and the smell of the ocean. This connection to the Force, the one Kylo was now inhabiting, was more careful, more directed than Rey’s had been, and it did not allow him the same domain over all the thoughts and senses of the user.  
Kylo felt Luke recognize him. _ Kylo Ren, _ his voice intoned somberly.  
_ Uncle_, he said smoothly, and with the full weight of the pain that the Light had caused him in the catacombs, he struck into Luke’s mind as ferociously as he could.  
The strike was carefully placed; he found the memory of Luke arriving on the planet almost before Luke had time to register surprise, and then fear. The rich green hues of the island below him. Luke’s hands on the ship’s controls—an old Republic-era X-wing—in front of him. A set of coordinates still blinking on the geographic display in the console.  
Kylo felt Luke trying to close off the memory from him, but it was too late. He shoved away from Luke before he could push his way into Kylo’s mind in retaliation. He let himself fall backwards, trusting the bond between the holocrons to pull him back to his own body. Luke receded into obscurity and the island planet with him, and Kylo found himself on Demarest once again.

***

The coordinates had taken them to the foothills of a planet called Solis. The landscape was drawn in chalky pastels: sprays of pale lavender and periwinkle blossoms tumbled from the branches of trees, and a slight mist rose ankle-high above the moss-carpeted ground.  
With the holocron in his palm, Kylo stared out over the gently rolling fields, his jaw set.  
Irizar descended from the causeway of his own shuttle and strode up behind Kylo. “Lead on, Master Kylo. Where do we find Skywalker and your scavenger girl?”  
Vaelys stepped past both of them, her eyes wide as she scanned across the horizon. “This is not the place from the vision,” she breathed.  
“Not the place—?” Irizar drew up in front of Kylo. “Then where is it you have led us?”  
Kylo was not listening to him. His eyes were fixed on the nearby village, composed of a small cluster of buildings, neat and well cared for. No crumbling Jedi temples in the distance. No salt-heavy scent of ocean.  
“This is impossible,” Kylo said numbly. “I saw the coordinates in Skywalker’s mind.”  
Irizar’s eyes narrowed on him. “The coordinates Skywalker showed you.”  
“I do not sense Luke Skywalker, nor Rey,” Vaelys said, “nor any other strong presences in the Force.”  
“Can you connect to Skywalker again? Gain another clue to his whereabouts?” Ghodous interjected.  
“Why bother?” Irizar hissed, without moving his eyes from Kylo. “Skywalker has already made fools of us once.”  
Kylo shook his head. “Skywalker must have been here before.”  
“He is decades gone, if he was ever here. And now that he knows how close we came to reaching him, he will be driven deeper into hiding. Beyond all hope of finding him.” Irizar stared at him, his mouth set in a snarl. “And you were _ so sure_, Master Kylo. _ So close _ to finally tracking him down. How particularly embarrassing, to fall for a trick by an old master of yours—”  
Irizar’s back had hit the ground before Kylo turned to face him. He lay splayed in the dirt as Kylo stepped over him, his hand extended outwards. He was choking Irizar so severely that no sound left him at all. Kylo looked down at him calmly, watched a blood vessel pop in Irizar’s eye, and heard nothing but the pounding roar of his own rage in his ears.   
Somewhere in the distance someone was yelling—a second voice, screaming—both indistinct and far away. Then a hand grabbed his shoulder suddenly the voices were right next to him.   
It was a villager, his face at first confused and angry, shifting to terror as Kylo turned to look at him. He started to stumble away but Kylo reached out and grabbed the collar of the man’s robes, and, with a casual flip of his thumb, ignited his lightsaber.   
The man scrambled desperately to escape, stammering out a plea in some alien language. Kylo held him easily and looked into the man’s eyes as he plunged the saber into his gut.  
The man sputtered, blood rushing suddenly from his mouth, then went limp in Kylo’s grasp. Kylo withdrew his saber and cast the body aside.  
Irizar was still on the ground. Kylo walked over him, ignoring Ghodous’s fixed, expressionless stare. With an absent spin of the saber from one hand to the other and back, he started to walk towards the cluster of buildings. Other villagers saw him coming and the corpse on the ground beside him, and started to flee.  
“Master Kylo?” Vaelys said softly.  
“Burn the village,” he said, his voice low. He turned to look at her, the blood from the dead man spattered across his face. “And kill anything in reach.”


	34. Chapter 34

Night had fallen over the island before Rey found Luke again. He was sitting at a fire near his cabin, apparently impervious to the freezing winds rolling off the ocean and up over the cliff edge.  
She stood there for a few moments, debating whether she should turn around before she was noticed and retreat to her own cabin. Just when she had decided to do so, Luke began to speak.  
“It’s done,” he said in a low voice, without turning towards her. “The Ren won’t find us. For now.”  
Rey took a few cautious steps forward so that she was within the circle of orange light cast by the fire. The holocron was resting in Luke’s palm. “I’m sorry,” she offered quietly. “I should have listened to you.”  
He held up the holocron, its intricate geometric markings glinting in the firelight. Rey regarded it warily. Without any warning, the holocron collapsed in on itself, as if pressed in on all sides by a tremendous weight. It splintered violently until all that remained was a handful of gold fragments.  
Rey’s eyes flickered between Luke and the remnants of the holocron. “Why would you do that?” she whispered.  
“I told you to leave it where you found it. Instead, you used it to show Snoke and his servants where to find me. Even with the holocron destroyed, they may have already sensed the power of this world. The temple is in danger, because of you.”  
“How could I have known that they would be able to see me?” Rey said. Her gaze flickered between the fractured metal in Luke’s palm and the anger in his face. She wanted to protest that the holocron had been alive, after all, and that maybe they could have learned something from it—but now it was gone.  
“You still don’t understand, do you?” Luke demanded. “Snoke will not rest until I am dead.”  
She finally fixed her stare on Luke. “Then stop hiding and fight.”  
Luke stood abruptly, letting the pieces of the holocron drop to the ground. “You really think you have a chance against Kylo Ren? You couldn’t even stop him from getting inside your mind.”  
“If both of us fight against him—”  
“I’m not fighting any of them. Not alongside you.”  
Rey was silent for a moment. “If you hated Kylo Ren as much as you seem to hate me, you would be willing to help me go after him.”  
“If you’re so eager to find Kylo Ren again, why don’t you let him be your teacher?” Luke snapped.  
She was suddenly struck by the coldness in his face. “What?”  
“He offered to train you, didn’t he?”   
Rey drew back from Luke. “You’ve been in my mind,” she realized slowly.   
“And you considered it,” Luke went on, as if Rey hadn’t spoken. “You truly thought about taking him up on it. Kylo Ren’s dark apprentice, wouldn’t that be exciting?” His tone was harsh and mocking.  
“You were spying on me,” Rey said, her voice shaking. “All this time—”   
“He would have turned you into the same monster that he is. And you would have let him.”   
Rey’s expression hardened and she took a step towards him. “No. I’m not a coward like you. You say you’re doing important work on this island. But you’re just hiding because you don’t believe you can defeat Kylo Ren. You’re afraid of him.” Rey watched Luke coldly as she spoke. “And while you rot away here, your sister is leading the fight against the First Order. You would let the galaxy be destroyed before you even considered trying to help.”  
Luke’s eyes flashed, something different and dangerous in his expression. “I should never have let you stay here,” he snarled. “Leave this island, Rey.”  
Rey stared back at him, her voice failing her.  
“I was wrong to try and train you. I should have known that from the beginning. This island is sacred and you have no place here. Take that lightsaber and leave.”  
“Where am I supposed to go?” Rey said, her throat tight.  
“Back to Jakku, for all I care,” Luke said. “I don’t want to see you here again. Your Jedi training is over.” He turned his back on Rey and walked slowly back towards his hut.   
Rey stared after him for a long time, long after he’d disappeared into the moonless dark. She listened to the churn of the ocean below her and the wind howling around her. She tried to listen deeper, searching for the pulse of the Force within the island, hoping for something that would tell her what to do next. But she was met with resounding silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, our Luke was an asshole before TLJ.
> 
> -Z


	35. Chapter 35

Kylo had barely guided his shuttle into the hangar of the _ Finalizer _ when he heard Snoke’s voice resounding in his mind.  
_Come to me. Now._  
He had been expecting a summons, but even so the cold anger echoing through his head made him wince. He released his hold on the controls so the hangar’s automated system could maneuver the shuttle into its slip.  
It had been three months since Kylo had been onboard the _ Finalizer_. He was dimly aware of the wave of whispers that traveled ahead of him, announcing his return. On the way into the hangar, he’d passed the neat line of capital ships that led up to the _Finalizer_. He knew they must have been gathered for something happening on the planet below them, although he hadn’t bothered to find out any details. It wouldn’t matter for the council with Snoke.  
Snoke was waiting for him when he arrived, watching him walk the length of the chamber and not saying a word until Kylo was directly in front of him.  
“Irizar Ren has given me his report,” Snoke said languidly. “But I’ll let you tell me. What happened?”  
Kylo had tried, on the walk here and throughout the monotonous journey back from Demarest, to decide exactly what he would say. He hadn’t counted on Snoke having already spoken to Irizar.  
He started reluctantly, “We defeated the Sith gatekeeper and got into the sanctum where the holocron was stored. It connected me to Rey. The holocrons must have been paired, matched somehow. I sent Vaelys to find her location, but Rey escaped.”  
“What next, Kylo Ren?” Snoke asked in a low voice.  
He recounted, as flatly as he could manage, “I knew I would be able to get into the connection between the holocrons again. But when I did, Rey no longer had the holocron. I connected to Skywalker instead. I thought I found the coordinates for the planet in Skywalker’s mind—”  
Kylo closed his mouth abruptly. He cast a short glance up at Snoke.   
“Irizar told you the rest,” he said bluntly.  
“Tell me.”  
Kylo clenched his jaw. “We followed the coordinates. But it was a deception. He and Rey were not there.”  
“And now,” Snoke said, “knowing that he has evaded you and the other Ren, he will be nearly impossible to draw out into the open again. You had the chance to destroy Skywalker and you let it slip away. Do you understand the gravity of your mistake?”  
Anger spiked through Kylo. “I wanted to go after Skywalker and Rey months ago. You told me the holocron was more important.”  
“And what else did I tell you? That if you came up against them, you would lose. And look how right I was.”  
“You told me that I needed to retrieve the holocron,” Kylo snapped. “That’s what the training has been for. Everything since Starkiller. And I retrieved it.”  
“Your training has been a waste of time,” Snoke hissed. “What good has any of it done? All the time I’ve spent on you was worth nothing. You are worth nothing.”  
Snoke stared at him, his expression contorted with loathing. When he spoke again, it was in a tone of disinterest. “And what of the holocron? Do you have it for me, as little use as it is now?”  
Kylo still did not speak, his eyes fixed on the wall past Snoke. He had a second to feel the vicious spasm of Snoke’s anger before an invisible pulse hit him squarely in the chest, knocking the breath from him and dropping him to his knees.   
“Answer me,” Snoke said coldly.  
When Kylo could speak again, he said hoarsely, “The holocron is dead. After I used it to connect to Skywalker, there was no presence of the Force left in it.”  
Kylo was surprised how readily Snoke accepted his lie. He looked down at Kylo, still on his knees. “Pathetic,” he said scornfully, just before the projection flickered away. 


	36. Chapter 36

General Hux was the sole point of white on a field of red. The First Order banner, taller than the AT-ATs adjacent to the newly constructed stage, would have nearly obscured the sky from the vantage point of the stormtroopers standing at ground level. The admirals and their senior officers were seated on a narrow scaffold just in front of the stage, above the ranks of stormtroopers. To the left and right of the stage, four First Order capital ships—the _ Maelstrom, _ the _ Devastis, _ the _ Annihilator, _ and the _ Finalizer_—loomed, hulking and silent, eclipsing the dull green suns of Rivulon.  
Hux’s voice, artificially amplified, rolled through the conquered battlefield:  
“On this day, we have won the last of the small victories. Our forces have advanced steadily through the galaxy as planet after planet, system after system, submitted to our control. Now we are confronted with the purpose of all our efforts. In the coming days, we do what is asked of us by history. The New Republic balances on the precipice of its demise. The galaxy is ready for the final victory of the First Order.”

  
  


***

  
  
  


After the speech, the high command descended from the platform to reunite with their battalions. The drone of massive machinery trundling across the razed battlefield was interspersed with the resounding snaps of artillery hitting the ground as the _ Finalizer’s _ TIE fighters ran their bombing drills.  
The high-ceilinged interior of the _ Finalizer’s _ auditorium was silent and still. Hux was seated at the front of the hall, hundreds of empty chairs facing him.   
He had his chin propped on his hand, resting two fingers against his temple. He still wore his white dress uniform, the gold detailing sparkling brilliantly in the low light. The long white cape was draped over one arm of the chair and swept around to his feet.  
At the far end of the hall, a door opened. Hux lifted his chin from his hand. “Yes,” he called without turning his head towards the door. “I’ll be back to the bridge in a—”  
The door slid shut again. Hux glanced over at it. Ren was standing there, motionless and silent.   
“Ren,” Hux said, surprised for a moment before he recovered himself. “I didn’t realize you’d returned.”  
Ren did not answer. He started to descend the amphitheatre steps towards Hux. The mask was nowhere in sight.  
“I trust your mission with the Knights of Ren was a success,” Hux said, watching him approach. “Did you just now—?”  
Without a word, Ren sank to a kneel. He tilted his head to look up at Hux. Then, he said, “Congratulations on your victory, General. You must be pleased.”   
Hux studied Ren. He looked more ragged since Hux had seen him last, his eyes betraying his exhaustion. “We are nearing the end of the war.”  
“And then?”  
Hux looked back at him, somewhat cautiously. “Then we get what we’ve wanted. Control of the galaxy.”  
“United under your command.”   
“Yes,” Hux said softly.  
Ren nodded. “I look forward to seeing your rule.” He hesitated. “And if there is a place for me in your empire, I hope to serve you well.”  
Hux watched him closely. “The Supreme Leader will expect your loyalty.”  
Ren was quiet for a few moments. He took the lightsaber from his waist, letting it rest across his palms, then offered it up to Hux. “And you’ll have it.”  
Hux’s eyes shifted from the lightsaber hilt to Ren’s face. Delicately, he accepted the saber. He felt the weight of it in his hands, running his thumb over the marred steel. “Ren,” he said quietly.  
Ren looked up at him and held Hux’s gaze.   
“In the new empire,” Hux murmured, “your place will be at my side.” He held the lightsaber back out to Ren, who took it and refastened it to his belt. Hux smoothed a hand over Ren’s hair.   
Ren closed his eyes and drew in a long, slow breath. He caught one of Hux’s hands in both of his own, Hux’s gloves vividly white against the black of Ren’s. He pulled Hux’s hand to his mouth, kissing his knuckles. “Do you have to go back now?”  
Hux’s eyes flickered. “No,” he said finally.  
Hux led Ren out of the amphitheatre through the corridors of the ship. He didn’t bother diverting their course to a less crowded route, as he used to do. It seemed to matter less now, whether anyone saw them walking side by side.  
As soon as the door to Hux’s quarters closed, Hux turned to face him, pulled him in and kissed him. Ren returned the kiss, deeply but not rushed, his hands sliding to Hux’s waist. Hux stopped him just long enough to pull him into the bedroom.  
The bond between them had faded so gradually when Ren left months ago that Hux hadn’t noticed until Ren was long gone. Ren must have come back to the _ Finalizer _ in the aftermath of Rivulon, when Hux was too preoccupied to sense it returning. Now, though, with Ren’s mouth pressed to his, the bond was as strong as it had ever been. He felt Ren drinking him in—the lingering adrenaline from the speech, the triumph of the First Order’s victory at Rivulon, each feeling magnified as Ren reveled in it.   
Ren broke the kiss to step behind Hux, sliding his hand along Hux’s shoulders until he reached the catch at the front of Hux’s cloak. He unclasped it and from the corner of his eye, Hux watched the cloak drift out of Ren’s hand and drape itself neatly over the back of the nearest chair.   
Ren undressed him slowly, kissing the bare skin with reverence. He hesitated when he reached Hux’s belt, his fingers trailing lightly over the buckle. Hux undid it for him, then slid off his own boots and pants and watched Ren as he did the same.   
Ren sat on the edge of the bed and Hux straddled him, catching him in another deep kiss. Hux pressed his tongue into Ren’s mouth until they were out of breath, both of them gasping softly each time Hux shifted in Ren’s lap. He pushed Ren back so that he was lying on the bed. Ren obliged, and watched with a trace of confusion as Hux reached for the vial in the drawer of his bedside table. Hux came back and sat over Ren’s thighs, smoothing the glossy liquid over Ren’s cock. He lingered, tracing his hand over Ren’s shaft until Ren gave an impatient whimper.   
Hux shifted so that he was over Ren’s waist, moving carefully as he started to take Ren inside him. He breathed in sharply, focusing on the initial shiver of pain as it broke over into pleasure. Ren moaned, dragging his hands along the length of Hux’s thighs, but held himself still. When Hux finally started to ride him, Ren’s head rolled back against the pillow and Hux was left admiring the long arch of his throat. He leaned down and pressed his mouth under Ren’s jaw, his breath hot against Hux’s ear.   
Hux sat up, his movements faster, shorter. As he straightened, Ren wrapped his hand around Hux’s cock and stroked him in time to the roll of Hux’s hips. He finished over Ren’s stomach, letting himself sink blindly into the intensity of his release.   
He didn’t have time to catch his breath before Ren grabbed his waist, pulling Hux against him as he jerked his hips. Still drifting with the rush of his own orgasm, suddenly aching to feel Ren come inside him, he leaned down again and kissed Ren, letting him wrap his arms around Hux. Ren’s hold on him tightened feverishly just before he gave a shuddering moan.  
Ren’s grip relaxed gradually and he slid his hands down to rest on Hux’s ass. Hux started to roll off of him but Ren’s hands tautened very slightly. “Not yet,” Ren murmured, and shifted so that he was aligned more comfortably inside Hux.  
Hux laid his head on Ren’s shoulder. Ren risked a small, content smile and ran his fingertips lightly over Hux’s back.   
After a few moments, Hux pressed his face to Ren’s neck and breathed in. “I have to get back to the bridge,” he said. Ren’s arms closed around him for a moment before he relented and gave a short nod. Hux disentangled himself from Ren, reluctantly, and went to wash up and redress.   
When he returned, Ren was still in bed, the covers pulled up to his waist. Hux stood at the foot of the bed, buttoning his usual gray tunic. He leaned forward and kissed Ren briefly. “I’m glad to have you back.”


	37. Chapter 37

_ “Leadership of the Core Worlds: this is General Hux of the First Order. As you are listening, know that the full strength of our armada has massed at your borders. You have no remaining allies to stand with you, and your Senate has fractured beyond repair, as all governments of its kind are destined to do. Your few planets will soon follow the rest of the galaxy in falling under First Order rule._  
_ “The way that happens, however, has yet to be decided. Our conquest of the outer planets has been largely bloodless. We are more than willing to extend the same treatment to you. _  
_ “Our only condition in offering our diplomacy is a very simple one. We wish to know the location of the terrorist cell known as the Resistance. _  
_ “Give us this information and the Core Worlds will know the same prosperity that we have brought to the outer planets. Withhold it from us, and you condemn your sector of the galaxy to share the same fate as Hosnia, or worse. There will be no negotiations. There will be no quarter._  
_ “You have twenty-four hours to make your choice. We advise you to consider the decision carefully. _  
_ “Long may the First Order reign.”_  
_  
  
  
_ Divo’s eyes lingered on the holoprojector where Hux’s image had been. Beside him, Chiron made a sound of disgust and turned away from the console. “Enough of this,” Chiron spat.  
Divo frowned. “Senator?”  
“General Hux thinks me a fool. Diplomacy—” Chiron let out a bitter laugh. “There is no diplomacy to be had with the First Order. I will not stand by any longer while he threatens to destroy what is left of the New Republic.”  
Chiron crossed his office to a secondary console. Divo lingered, his brow furrowed. “General Hux expects a response,” he said.  
“He’ll get one when our fleet arrives to stop him once and for all.”  
“Think about this, Senator,” Divo warned. “Do we really want to provoke an attack on the Core?”  
Chiron rounded on him. “Don’t you think we’ve dallied enough?” he snapped. “All this time, the Resistance has been fighting for us. And in return, we made them into criminals.”  
Divo watched as Chiron began hastily entering information into the console. “The New Republic has given up too much to the Order as it is. We will not give up the Resistance. I can only hope that Leia will believe me when I send warning.”  
Slowly, Divo said, “You know where the Resistance is?”  
“I’ve maintained a direct channel with Leia for many years. We must coordinate with her to combine our forces.”  
Divo did not reply, but took a step towards him. Chiron went on, typing as he spoke, oblivious to Divo’s approach. “Begin preparations to mobilize the fleet. You launch at once.”  
A silence followed. Chiron paused, and he began to turn as he said, “Do you hear me—?”  
Divo pulled his blaster from his jacket and fired into Chiron’s stomach. Chiron spluttered, his eyes widening in surprise and pain. He staggered backwards, clutching his abdomen as his gray robes began to soak scarlet. He fell across the console as Divo closed the distance between them.  
“What do you think you’re doing?” Chiron gasped. “What—have you done?”  
“I’m sorry it came to this,” Divo said, keeping his blaster trained on Chiron. “But you’ve brought it on yourself.”  
Blood began to seep through Chiron’s fingers. “You’ve been planning this?”  
“I give the First Order what they want. They destroy the Resistance. Then, with the First Order busy and cornered, I’ll be able to take them out in my first launch.”  
“We cannot abandon the Resistance to the mercy of the Order—”  
“They’re traitors,” Divo snapped, “and they’re getting exactly what they deserve.”  
Pain morphed into anger in Chiron’s face. “No. You’re the traitor.”  
“I’m doing this for the New Republic,” Divo said patiently, as if he expected Chiron not to understand. “The Resistance and the Republic can’t exist alongside each other, not while Organa lives. Now the Resistance will die along with the First Order, and this war will be won.”   
“General Organa was right about you,” Chiron hissed. “She was right all along.”  
“She and her followers will all be dead soon enough. And so will you.”  
Chiron’s breath came more shallowly. He whispered, “Forgive me, Leia.” With the last of his strength, he threw his bloodied hand across the screen to send his message. Divo fired once more, striking the center of Chiron’s back. He sprawled over the console as a rush of air left his lungs, and he crumpled to the floor.   
Divo slipped his blaster back into his jacket. He kicked Chiron’s body aside and leaned over the console. Through the streaks of red, Divo saw that a message to Organa had gone through. He cursed. But, as he investigated closer, he realized what lay beneath the words of Chiron’s warning: a tiny line of text containing coordinates.   
The Belt of Naydra. The location of the Resistance.


	38. Chapter 38

Once, the Belt of Naydra had been the site of a thriving Imperial mining operation. Everything valuable had been stripped decades ago, and now, it was just a desolate stretch of space in a sparsely inhabited region of the Inner Rim. The Empire’s mines had left behind the shells of hundreds of hollowed-out asteroids. Even having relocated all of their core personnel, ships, and supplies, the Resistance occupied only a few of them.  
The facilities on each asteroid—usually little more than a hangar designed for freighters, a control center, and a network of tunnels burrowing into the core—were badly decayed after years of abandonment. They wouldn’t have been ideal for trying to actually run a military operation. But they were more than serviceable for keeping out of sight.   
On one of these asteroids, in an old ops room off of the hangar, Leia was alone with her datapad. She was combing through the latest reports from Rivulon when a message suddenly flashed across the screen:

_ Leia, an urgent warning to you. The First Order has demanded your location under threat of invasion of the Core Worlds. I’ve refused them, but I don’t trust the integrity of my council once the Republic hears of this. Leia, you must gather your people and flee. Do not reveal yourselves until _

She recognized the identifying code in an instant—Senator Chiron’s. But this message was unlike him. The text lacked any ciphering and had been sent unfinished. As she stared at the screen, she sensed with sudden, acute certainty that the worst had happened to him. The realization sent a pang of grief through her.  
Her eyes scanned the text once again. Then she went to the nearest comm link and opened a base-wide channel. “Attention all units. Begin preparations for immediate evacuation. The Order is coming.”

***

In just hours, the entire base was cleared out. Leia ran through the halls, checking around each corner to find any stragglers. Once she got to the hangar, she oversaw as each ship was loaded up with supplies and prepped for launch.  
Poe jogged up to her, helmet tucked under his arm. “You’re with me, General,” he said. “Finn and I are your shuttle’s escort.”  
Leia nodded. “Tell everyone to launch the minute they’re ready.”  
“What’s our heading?”  
“No heading,” Leia said firmly. “Split up by squadron and go anywhere but here. Find other outposts as remote as you can. We’ll regroup at the _ Perpetua_.”   
Poe’s brows knit together, but he gave a curt nod.   
A piercing alarm rang through the base, casting the hangar in red light. “That’s the proximity alert,” he breathed.  
“Let’s move,” Leia said, and followed Poe towards his ship. Before they reached it, a crackling boom thundered through the base, followed closely by another. Then a third. A fourth.  
Every person in the hangar snapped their heads towards the entrance. Just beyond the slight shimmer of the atmospheric shield and past the layer of asteroids that sheltered them from open space, four First Order destroyers had appeared. A wave of TIEs came pouring out of the nearest destroyer, headed towards them.   
“Fighters launch first!” Leia barked. “Defend passenger shuttles until they get clear of the asteroids and make the jump to hyperspace. Go!”  
There was a flurry of movement around her as everyone scrambled to obey. She split from Poe as he veered off to his X-wing and she climbed the steps to the shuttle.   
She was barely in her seat before the shuttle lifted from the ground. The recognizable silhouettes of Black Leader and Red-2 were already hovering above the hangar, waiting for them.  
Leia could see a dense ripple of TIEs approaching the asteroid field, breaking formation as they peeled off to maneuver through the perilous space. Resistance fighters jolted forward to meet them head-on, forcing them to divert course or risk crashing into an asteroid.   
A rush of cannon fire broke out. Crippled X-wings shuddered and stalled until a TIE came over to finish them off with a final ion pulse. A few stray blaster bolts slammed into the smaller asteroids and reduced them to floating rubble, quickly creating a dangerous field of debris.   
Leia looked on as the passenger shuttles were swarmed by TIEs. One shuttle was quickly overwhelmed, bombarded on all sides by cannon fire. The ship erupted in a plume of flame and then vanished into the rest of the debris. Another shuttle was poised to follow suit before an X-wing broke from its position and flew full-tilt into the thick of the cannon fire, unleashing a barrage of blaster shots until the TIEs were forced to relent. Leia couldn’t suppress the flicker of a smile as she recognized the lone X-wing that had driven back the First Order: Red-2.   
She watched Red-2 loop around to rejoin Black Leader alongside her shuttle_. _ The three ships lingered in a brief lull, the TIEs momentarily held at bay as the last of the surviving passenger shuttles made the jump to the safety of hyperspace.  
Before Leia could give the order for the last few escorts to leave the asteroid belt, the unmistakable rumble of an approaching warship rolled through the shuttle. The next instant, another massive ship dropped out of hyperspace, placing Leia’s small band of remaining fighters between the new vessel and the First Order line.  
Over the comm link in her ear, she heard Poe’s voice announce to the rest of the channel: “We’ve got another destroyer on us!”  
Finn’s voice answered cautiously, “I don’t think that’s the Order.”  
Leia crossed to the bridge for a better view out the front window of the shuttle. Connix was to her right and Kumae, piloting the shuttle, was to her left. With a hand on the backs of both of their seats, Leia leaned forward to inspect the newly arrived ship. Its side bore the familiar red-and-white standard of the New Republic.   
“Divo,” Leia said.  
“Its call sign is _ Vanguard_,” Connix said. “Should we hail them?”   
An alarm sounded through the shuttle. Kumae’s hands flew across the console as she confirmed the reading from the ship’s automated detection system. “They’re locking onto us!”  
“They wouldn’t fire on us.” A note of doubt edged into Connix’s voice. She glanced to Leia. “Right?”  
Leia didn’t hesitate. “Get us out of here.”  
The three remaining ships bolted forward, racing out of the relative safety of the asteroid belt and into the open. As the ships maneuvered the last stretch of asteroids, the _ Vanguard _ fired—but the projectile didn’t look like any ion or blaster cannon Leia had ever seen.  
“What is that?” Kumae breathed.  
A bright white ring of energy swelled outward from the New Republic ship, growing rapidly in diameter. It passed directly through Leia’s shuttle and then the two X-wings just behind it.   
As soon as the blinding arc of white reached them, the lights inside the shuttle flickered and then went dark. The ship itself shuddered and began to drift, directionless. Without the sound of the engines, the shuttle was left eerily silent.  
“What just happened?” Connix asked.  
“Comms are down, shields are down,” Kumae said, trying desperately to draw a response from the navigation console in front of her. “Everything is down!”  
The ring of white continued past them into the asteroid field, passing over and through the debris without affecting it. Then, as the three of them looked on, the energy field reached a squadron of approaching TIEs.   
The effect was instantaneous; the ring had no more than touched the TIEs before the red lights on the exterior of their cockpits blinked out. Their neat formation disintegrated, and with their stabilizers gone, the ships tumbled into nearby asteroids and into each other. One by one, the TIEs were wiped out in fiery bursts, some of them so close that the explosions rattled the windows of Leia’s shuttle.   
Gradually, the shuttle’s lights began to return on backup power. A crackling on their comm line: “Dameron to Connix, do you read?” repeating through choppy static.  
“I read,” Connix said breathlessly. “Are you and Finn okay?”  
“Our shields are still down, but no damage. Get through the asteroids and jump, we’ll follow you!”  
“On it,” Kumae responded, pushing the throttle forward. The ship stuttered briefly, but then lurched ahead. As they fled the Belt of Naydra, Leia watched the _Vanguard _ move in towards the First Order fleet. Before she could make out what happened next, the window was streaked with glittering blue as the ship jumped into hyperspace, and the battlefield was gone. 


	39. Chapter 39

The bridge of the _ Finalizer _ was engulfed in sirens and pulsing red lights. Above the shrill alarms, a disarray of competing voices:  
“Communications interrupted with all TIE squadrons.”  
“Visuals lost—reporting multiple collisions and system failures.”   
“Scans of the unknown ship incoming from the _ Annihilator _ now, General,” said Lieutenant Umano. “It’s a New Republic battle-cruiser. Only recently operational.”  
Hux stood facing the bridge window. The expanse of space in front of him was peppered with distant explosions as more and more TIEs were reduced to rubble. His voice cut cleanly above the chaos as he asked Umano, “And the weapon?”  
“An electromagnetic burst powerful enough to disrupt all standard frequencies of communication. At close range, the burst can down the power system of a destroyer. Our records indicate that this technology is of Imperial make, but there’s no evidence of it being developed beyond testing stages.”  
“That’s the last of the Resistance ships, General Hux,” Shay said, glancing up at him. “They’ve left the quadrant.”  
“Sir,” Jamire shouted, “we’re being hailed.”  
As a single unit, the bridge froze. Hux said, “Put them through on the main holo.”  
The holoprojector above the bridge window rendered an indistinct, human-like form. Hux watched the image resolve, straightening as he recognized it. It took a moment for the connection to lock on through the broken communication frequencies. When it did, Hux was face to face with a projection of Admiral Divo.  
“General Brendol Hux. This is Admiral Matoc Divo, commander of the New Republic fleet. I’m here to negotiate the terms of your surrender.”  
“There will be no surrender,” Hux bit out. “We will not yield to the illegitimate government of the New Republic.”  
“Your combat forces are being cleared out as we speak, General. The ship-scale disruptor is primed to fire again and every one of your capital ships is currently in range. You don’t want to drag this out.”  
“Then I’ll be brief,” Hux said coldly. “The First Order rejects your demands for surrender. If you want our defeat, you will have to earn it.”  
Divo gave a sigh. “That’s a lot of fine ships that are about to be destroyed. I hate to see it. But I admire your conviction, so I won’t waste any more of your time.” Divo turned languidly towards someone outside of the holo’s range and said, “Fire.”  
Divo’s image stuttered, then vanished.  
Another ring of white energy swept outward from the _Vanguard, _ and the bridge of the _ Finalizer _ was plunged into darkness. The clamor was deafening: _“Shields down. Communication lines down. Stabilizers down. All power systems down.”_  
The _ Vanguard _ opened fire. The nearest ship was the _ Annihilator _ and it took the brunt of the attack as the _ Vanguard’s _ cannons opened up a row of breaches along the ship’s hull.   
A handful of emergency lights on the _ Finalizer’s _ bridge flickered spasmodically, fueled by the overwhelmed backup generators. Through the bridge window, Hux could see the other two capital ships—the _ Maelstrom _ and the _ Devastis _ —in similar conditions: lights guttered in the windows as the ships drifted, without propulsion or direction, at the mercy of the New Republic fleet. The _ Annihilator _ was listing dangerously as the volley of cannon blasts continued to tear into the ship’s side.  
“Can any of our ships return fire?” Hux asked tersely.  
“Weapons on the _ Finalizer _ are offline,” came Umano’s reply. “The lines are unresponsive across the fleet but we’re working to restore some communication with the other destroyers.”  
“The _ Annihilator _ is transmitting,” Shay said, twisting towards Hux. “Clarifying the signal now.”  
There was a burst of static, and then, intermittently, a voice that Hux recognized as Tebessa’s. _“The _ Annihilator _ is hit. The reactor core has ruptured,” _ she said, her voice warped by the failing comm lines. _“There is no time to evacuate. Long may the First—”_  
The bridge window was suddenly ablaze with light as a massive explosion erupted through the center of the _ Annihilator, _ splitting open a rift down the length of the ship. The next moment, the destroyer disappeared under a cascading torrent of flame. The _ Vanguard _ moved easily through the wreckage, rapidly closing the distance to the _Devastis_.  
Umano’s voice broke in. “The _Devastis _ bridge reports that they are unable to evade the New Republic’s approach. It looks like they’ll be boarded.”  
Two capital ships lost. For a few moments, Hux could only look out the window numbly, watching as the _ Vanguard _ eclipsed the _ Devastis_.  
He pivoted towards Umano. “Tell all remaining ships to initiate a retreat. We’ll regroup at Rivulon and return for the New Republic with the rest of the fleet.”  
All at once, Snoke’s voice overtook the whole of Hux’s mind as it spoke: _ Come to me_.  
Hux ignored it, shoving Snoke’s presence to a distant corner of his mind. He continued, “Contact our forces stationed at Rivulon and tell them to establish a defensive perimeter—”  
A sudden, severe pressure at his temples interrupted him, so strong that he couldn’t speak through it.   
_Now, General. _  
Stiffly, Hux turned to Lieutenant Umano. “I must report to Supreme Leader Snoke. You’re in command of the bridge. I will return as quickly as I can.”  
The officers near Hux fell quiet at his words. Umano’s steady gaze lingered on Hux’s face a moment too long. “Yes, sir,” she said.  
With a last glance at the bridge of the _Finalizer_, Hux turned away and went to meet Snoke.


	40. Chapter 40

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to go on record that this scene was written long, long before TLJ. That is all. -L

Hux strode quickly through the halls, shoving past panicked officers as the _ Finalizer _ rattled around them. He entered the Holochamber and saw Ren already there beneath Snoke’s image.  
“General.” Snoke’s eyes followed Hux as he approached. “Now that you have deigned to join us, you can explain this latest disaster that you have wrought.”  
“There isn’t time for this,” Hux said sharply, sweeping up to take his place beside Ren. “I must return to the bridge, Supreme Leader. Our communications will return shortly and I have yet to coordinate the retreat.”  
“And why is it that we are retreating? How has my fleet suffered like this under your command?”  
“The technology of the New Republic ship was unprecedented,” Hux said heatedly, “but the remaining destroyers can regroup at Rivulon and—”   
“Enough,” Snoke roared, the violence of his anger spilling forward to hold Hux in a physical grip. The sensation started at his windpipe, then spread outward to his skull and chest, a coiling, inhuman weight that paralyzed him where he stood. Hux was distantly aware that Snoke was in his mind, tearing recklessly through his thoughts and memories, but Hux could not think past the pain in his chest.  
“I should have expected that you would be the downfall of the First Order,” he snarled. “You’ve always been so certain that you were more clever than me. Do you still think so highly of yourself now? After your incompetence has destroyed any chance of victory?”  
Hux felt the invisible pressure constricting around him more tightly, squeezing the air from his lungs, the blood from his brain. Something cracked in his ribcage and he choked on the taste of copper as it flooded his mouth.  
“And you, Kylo Ren,” Snoke hissed. “You have something to say. Are you going to defend him?”   
Hux could not turn to look at him but from the corner of his eye, he could see Ren standing perfectly still, facing straight ahead. “The war isn’t lost,” he said slowly. “General Hux could oversee the retreat to Rivulon. Reinforcements could be called in, or—”  
“General Hux has brought the First Order to ruin.” Snoke’s voice resounded through the chamber as he rose to his feet, towering above them. “And I will see to it that these failures are his last.”  
Ren fell silent.   
“Unless,” Snoke breathed, “you believe it should be you to bring the General to his fate.”  
“No,” Ren faltered, “I—”  
The coil of pressure around Hux abruptly vanished. He fell to the floor and landed on his side, blinded by pain. For several moments he could not move to get his legs beneath him. Blood spilled down his chin, dripping wet and dark on the tiles. Slowly, Hux pushed himself to his knees.   
“Kill him,” Snoke hissed.   
There was a long silence. Hux drew rattling breaths, each one bringing a renewed spasm of pain in his ribs.   
From the tops of his eyes, Hux saw Ren’s boots turn towards him. “Stand up,” Ren said.  
Hux lifted his head to look at him. Suddenly his anger at Ren overshadowed the pain. Of course Ren would obey. Ren would never dare to question Snoke—he’d never shown the slightest trace of being able to think for himself, why should Hux expect him to start now—   
_ If I don’t, he will. _ Ren’s voice was desperate in Hux’s mind.   
He found himself drained of his anger. Ren was right. If it were left up to Snoke, Hux’s death would be excruciatingly slow. Hux could trust Ren to let him die with dignity.  
There could be worse endings than this.  
Grimacing, Hux slowly brought himself to his feet. Ren drew the hilt of his lightsaber, and then stopped.   
“Why do you hesitate?” Snoke pressed. “I grow impatient.”  
Hux set his shoulders. _ It will be easier if it’s quick._  
Ren was breathing shallowly, his eyes flickering over Hux’s face. Hux sensed his thoughts, all less than words, as they ricocheted around each other, searching for an impossible escape from an inevitable conclusion.  
“Kylo Ren,” Snoke said, a dangerous edge rising in his voice.  
The blade and then the crossguards of Ren’s lightsaber flared into being, the sound echoing down the length of the darkened Holochamber.  
Snoke’s cold, expectant face was over Ren’s shoulder but Hux ignored him, keeping his eyes fixed on Ren. He opened his mind to Ren’s presence. Ren shied from it, expecting anger, but Hux gently drew him in. He tried to show Ren what he could not say: he was calm. He didn’t blame Ren. He wasn’t afraid.   
Then, with a short exhale, he let Ren go.  
The overwhelming panic of Ren’s thoughts went quiet.  
Ren drew back the lightsaber, and Hux fell into a painless, empty black.


	41. Chapter 41

The impossible: sound.  
At first Hux thought it was thunder; there were often storms that lasted days at his home on Arkanis. He remembered waking like this—dazed, afraid, alone—countless times to a similar sound.   
But this was too steady for thunder, and too immediate for the faraway drone of the _ Finalizer’s _ massive engines. It was nearer, just below him, maybe, a higher-pitched, clear silver thrum that he gradually realized must be the engine of a smaller craft.  
Hux was not on the _ Finalizer_.   
Hux was not dead.  
He could not make sense of this. His most recent memories were fragmented, hazy: he remembered Snoke’s voice, muted with rage; then a crushing pain that was too intense to have been preserved in memory, leaving only a blank white gap. Ren pleading in his mind. A silent accord, forgiveness for an apology Ren could not afford to give. The last thing that would matter. A vivid flash of red.   
There was not supposed to be anything after that.  
But here he was, listening to the sound that wasn’t thunder, unable to piece together anything else.  
Hux opened his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End of Part I.
> 
> Be sure to follow us on Tumblr and Twitter for updates on Part II. We are working tirelessly to get it posted before the release of Rise of Skywalker, so we won't be gone for long. Thank you all so much for reading! 
> 
> https://twitter.com/mysticaloyster ║ https://mysticaloyster.tumblr.com/
> 
> Humbly yours, Z & L


End file.
